//------------------------------// // Life in Technicolor // Story: Life in Technicolor // by ThePwnzorMuffin //------------------------------//         No one calling her name, no pony asking her to do this, to do that, no voice buzzing in her ears, whatever.         It was a lazy day, and nothing would ruin it for her.         She swished her tail from side to side, as she took in her surroundings. The clouds drifted by without a care in the world, the wind hadn’t picked up all day, even the ponies moved around town without energy or even priority. And Rainbow Dash loved every second of it.         Lazy days meant kicking her hooves back, laying her head down, and, well, that was about it. Ironically enough, “nothing” was the only item on her hastily-planned and not well-thought out schedule. Sure, that’s what she intended to do every day when she got up in the morning, but on days like these, she could do it without some stupid conscience in the very back of her mind, which was usually staging some sort of protest, which, though insignificant, ended up in her up on her hooves and grumbling to herself. No, on days like these, she could do it because the rest of the world was doing it.         A small smile spread across her face, as she did exactly what she intended to do. She lay on her back, resting her forelegs behind her head. The pegasus sighed softly as she lay down. It had been too long since she had done this... she hadn’t had some time to herself for... what? Two days now? Two days too long... Her thoughts faded into nothing as she drifted off, sleep coming to her unexpectedly. Lazy days have that kind of effect on ponies. -------------------------------------         Rainbow woke before her eyes opened. She grumbled to herself, feeling a mild pain throbbing in her neck. The realization made her pause, and she cracked her eyes open.         The world was upside down. Trees hung from the sky... which was actually the ground... but in the sky? Why was it above her, and not below her?         The haze of sleep faded from around her as she thought of what probably happened. Sitting up, she rubbed at the back of her neck, grimacing when she saw that the cloud she had been sleeping on had been reduced to a mere patch, not even big enough to support her whole body.         She tilted her head upwards, seeing that the sun had just begun its descent down to the horizon. That meant that she had been sleeping... -she tapped her head as the gears in her mind turned- for not long enough! Her half-lidded eyes snapped open. She was wasting precious napping time just thinking about it!         Earlier today, there was no shortage of clouds in the sky. Now, though, Rainbow only saw endless blue wherever she looked above her. Her tiny patch was apparently Ponyville’s only cloud supply for the rest of the day.         ...Now that she thought about it, sleeping on the ground seemed pretty nice. With a whoosh, her wings opened, and after a few experimental flaps, she was in the air. Her flight only lasted for a second, though, as she found a tree with branches that stretched into the sky, but still big enough to support her.         For the second time that day, she flopped onto her back, resting her head against the trunk... and now matter how hard she shut her eyes, or shifted around, sleep would not come.         Rainbow Dash was not a patient pony. With a groan, she opened her eyes. With waking up, came the need to do something. She didn’t even want to know why, but her limbs yelled at her to move, her mind telling her to get off her back. Apparently, her conscience could still come through on a lazy day.         Grumbling to herself, she rolled off her back. She didn’t realize the lack of tree branch supporting her until the ground greeted her with a rude *thump*.         This is what I get for trying to do something... The pegasus swept her head around, taking in where she really was for the first time.         A lake spread out before her, the trees nearby hiding it away quite nicely. She took a few steps forward, feeling the rustle of grass under her hooves gradually shift to the light clacking of rocks. Almost instinctually, she took one in her hoof, weighing it with a few light bounces.         The water was a deep blue, a few ripples breaking the otherwise calm surface here and there. As Dash stood there, with a stone in her hoof, an idea sprung to her mind. It had definitely been a while since she had done this, but what time better than now to relearn her most useless skill?         Her wings flapped, and she found herself at a comfortable hover, only inches off the ground. Straightening up, she bent her hoof, so that the stone rested between the nook created by her hoof and the rest of her foreleg. Now that she looked at it, the stone was a dull grey, round yet flat. As she had learned herself, the perfect kind for stone-skipping.         Her eyes narrowed, and she cocked her foreleg back, before flinging her rock forward. The stone soared through the air, almost rushing to meet the water. If she remembered correctly, if she threw it the right way, it would skip across the water-         -Right before her eyes, the stone hit the water with a *plop!* and promptly sunk into the lake’s depths.         Apparently she hadn’t remembered right. Rainbow cursed under her breath as the stone met its unlucky fate, but a smirk replaced her grimace almost immediately. A single missed throw was no matter, and she was sure that her memory would be jogged in no time at all. If this was how she was going to spend the rest of her lazy day, then she definitely wasn’t complaining. -------------------------         Her throwing leg wasn’t tired. Definitely not. The way it ached and throbbed just meant that it wanted more practice.         Yet throw after throw, the crease between her eyes deepened, and her eyes narrowed further. All the fish had surely taken refuge on the other side, none of them bold enough to approach the potentially dangerous show that the pegasus was putting on for them. But Rainbow wasn’t a pony who gave up! She was sure that this time, this time for sure, the darn stone would-         *Plop*         - Never mind.         Rainbow already had another stone in her hoof, but after seeing the latest result, the impatience and repeated failures finally manifested themselves in the form of her throwing her hooves in the air, and a frustrated “Gah!” following soon after. This had the unintended side effect of her momentarily, yet completely, forgetting that she held a potential weapon in her grasp, only realizing that she was missing something a moment later.         A loud, tree-trunk-splintering crack sounded behind her, and, much to her surprise, a sharp “Ack!” was right behind it. Rainbow whipped her head around, seeing the last pony she expected to see, standing right in front of her.         Twilight stood behind her, her eyes wide and her horn glowing. Unsurprisingly to Rainbow, a piece of parchment, most likely a page of notes or something nerdy like that, floated above her. Twilight’s eyes weren’t on her at the moment, though, and as Rainbow followed her gaze, she saw what was probably more important.         Right next to the unicorn, a rock-sized hole had made its mark in a tree trunk, virtually right next to Twilight’s head. That had definitely not been there when Rainbow had showed up... and she noted that the stone in her hoof had strangely disappeared...         Oh. Whoops.         Twilight turned to face her friend. “Rainbow... what are you doing?” She raised an eyebrow, taking a step back at the same time.         “Uh...” was Dash’s immediate, intelligent reply. She swept her hooves behind her back, grinning. “Nothing!” Twilight’s raised eyebrow went up further. “Uh...Super awesome stuff that you’d have no idea about? You can definitely go and leave and... do whatever somewhere else, right?” As if realizing for the first time that she had nothing to hide behind her back, her grin faded slightly, and she scratched the back of her neck with a sheepish hoof.         Much to her dismay, Twilight turned back to the hole in the tree, and a moment later, the incriminating piece of evidence floated out. She turned back to Dash, a grin of her own on her face. “Rocks?” That was all she needed to say.         Well, shoot. “I was bored?” Much to her relief, Twilight only giggled at her response. “Why didn’t you just say so? Though,” she added after a moment, “try to pass the time by not trying to put me in the hospital.” Surprisingly to Rainbow, she floated the rock back into her open hoof without much hesitation. “Heh, yeah...” she bounced the rock in her hoof absently, “sorry about that.” She was about to turn back to the lake that was now behind her, before a thought entered her mind. “Hey... what are you doing out here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be reading in the library or something like that?” Twilight only rolled her eyes at Rainbow’s friendly jab. “You know, I can get out of the library if I wanted to! I’m just here to do some field research on the local wildlife. If it’s not up to date with the edition that I have in the library,” she stole a glance at her notes for a moment, “then I’ll have to order the latest edition from Canterlot.” She smiled, as if that were perfectly normal for anypony to do. Rainbow blinked. Did she just take all of that in without spacing out? She surprised even herself sometimes. Meanwhile, Twilight looked out at the lake, then back to Rainbow, seemingly deep in thought before speaking up: “You’re not going to try to hit me with that rock again, are you?” Dash had been staring out at the lake, the very beginnings of zoning out, but now she turned back to Twilight as the unicorn’s words registered. “What? Oh come on, you know I’d never try to hurt you, Twi!” They both looked to the new... mark in one of the trees, then back to each other. “On purpose,” she quickly added. “If you say so... say, do you mind if I do my research here? As long as I can trust you with those things, that is.” Dash rolled her eyes, not seeing Twilight’s growing grin at her reaction. “Oh, haha.” She rolled her eyes to accompany her sarcastic statement. “Go ahead, I mean I guess I could use some company.” She shrugged. “You could make yourself comfortable over there...” She trailed off as she saw Twilight already scribbling away on her piece of parchment, already off in “that” place. Rainbow sighed, muttering a “you’re welcome” before turning back to the lake and drawing her leg back, primed for another throw. --------------------------------------------------------------         She reminded herself to keep her frustration down, just a bit. It proved to be harder and harder, as her unexpected break didn’t seem to be helping her throw one bit.         For a while, neither pony spoke to each other, each occupied in one way or another. As time went on, though, and with each failed throw, Rainbow felt a certain unicorn’s eyes on her. The pegasus paid no attention, not even looking in Twilight’s direction. She didn’t need anypony judging her, not even if it was the smartest pony she knew. She could skip stones just fine, with or without anyone watching or-         “Dash?”         “What?” She whirled on Twilight for the first time, her response coming out a little harsher than she had intended. To her credit, though, Twilight didn’t shrink back. She scrunched up her mouth, and if Dash didn’t know any better, she was trying to hold back a smile.         “If I’m not mistaken, you’re trying to-”         “Skip stones?” She narrowed her eyes.         Twilight nodded, unable to stop her smile from taking its full form in a one-sided smirk.         “What? What’s so funny?” Dash crossed her hooves in front of her chest. “I can skip stones just fine, thank you very much.”         And to her surprise, and her indignation, Twilight’s smile turned into a fit of giggles, as she shook with suppressed laughter. The unicorn quickly covered her mouth with a hoof, and she looked up with half-sheepish, half-not-sorry-at-all eyes at the confused pegasus.         After what seemed like too long, Twilight finally calmed down. She opened her mouth to speak, though her smile remained. “Sorry, it’s just...” she shook her head, looking down briefly, “you don’t have to be so defensive about it! I don’t really mind if you can’t skip stones very well... or at all. It’s not something that’s all that important, you know.”         Dash stuck her bottom lip out in a pout, tightening her hooves over her chest. “I’m not defensive...”         “Uh-huh...” Twilight seemed to agree. “Do you need some help with that?” She gave a nod to the pile of stones that had come into shape at one point of another, as Dash dug her hoof right into it.         “Really?” Rainbow rolled her eyes, picking another stone at random, and cocking her leg behind her head. “I told you, I can skip stones just fine, and you don’t have to say anything about it!” To emphasize her point, she flung her stone forward right as she finished her sentence. Unsurprisingly, it managed a grand total of zero bounces before meeting its untimely demise at the bottom of the lake.         An eyeroll later, and Twilight was by her side. Dash’s groan of frustration was unheard to her as the unicorn hoof-picked the stone at the very top of the pile. “Well, at least you’ve got the right kind of stone...” she mused, more to herself. She then turned to her friend, who immediately voiced an “I don’t-” but Twilight cut her off right away with a hoof on the pegasus’ muzzle. While the surprised contact made Dash’s eyes widen, it had the intended effect of keeping her quiet for a moment.         “Now,” Twilight continued, “I’m guessing you’ve been here all day trying to do this.” She removed her hoof from Dash’s mouth, a smirk of her own starting to take shape on her features.         “No! Not the whole day...” Rainbow tried to protest, but seeing Twilight’s unbelieving glance, she sighed. “Just most of it.”         Seemingly satisfied, Twilight went on. “And I’m guessing you’re going to be here for the rest of the day, if that’s what it takes to get this right.” She didn’t even look up as Dash gave her a hesitant nod. “Well, you are going to be here all day with that form. And to be honest, I don’t really like seeing you fail and get frustrated for so long, when there’s something I can do about it.”         “So,” Twilight turned to face the lake, and seated herself on the edge of the water, bouncing the stone in one of her forelegs. “even though you don’t like asking anypony for help... on anything, I’m going to help you with this. You’ll thank me later.”         Dash stood there, dumbstruck. Twilight knew her too well. She couldn’t even think of an awesome comeback, or anything that would save her dignity at this point.         She must have been standing there a little too long, because Twilight put her free hoof up to her mouth and giggled. “Well?” She had to admit, Twilight did wear that smirk well. Not as well as the Dash, of course, but not too bad...         The pegasus rolled her eyes, blowing her mane out of her face with a “Pfft. I guess so...” She picked yet another stone, and strolled over to Twilight.         “Alright... You might want to sit down, since I’m not sure how I’d teach it to you if you were in the air like you have been.” It was almost amazing how quickly Twilight switched into lecture mode, and her playful tone from just moments before was nowhere to be found.         As Rainbow did as she was told, Twilight gave her an approving nod. “Okay, instead of bringing your hoof behind your head like you were doing, you’re better off bringing it out to the side, like this.” She brought her throwing leg to the side of her body. “That’s because throwing it like you were, with a downward motion, will cause your point of release to be too angled in relation to the water, and you won’t get any bounces in that way, because at the point of impact, the stone won’t be virtually parallel to the water, which is what you want. Not only that, but your trajectory-” She glanced over at that moment, and caught Rainbow staring at her, confusion written across her face. Twilight’s face heated up for a moment, as she realized how her... colorful explanation must have come off to Rainbow. “Right. Sorry. Anyway, after you have that down, you’re going to throw.” She flung her stone forward, and right before Dash’s eyes, the stone hit the water... and bounced up again, repeating the motion at least three more times before finally sinking. “Though you want to start out with your leg at the side, you’re going to want to angle your throw down just a little bit, especially as you’re letting go. Not too much, because of what I mentioned earlier, but if you throw it perfectly parallel to the water, it’s going to lose a lot of speed by the time it actually gets there.” She turned back to Dash. “And that’s about all I have on skipping stones. Did you get all of that?” “Um...” Rainbow peered at her stone, almost intently, and scratching her head with her other hoof. “I think so? So... like this?” She brought her leg back a little bit more, before bringing it forward, making sure to angle her throw downward slightly. The rock sailed towards the water, but the result was virtually the same: it sank without so much as the slightest hop. Dash buried her face in her hooves. “Ugh... what the hay... I thought that was right, too!”         Twilight brought her hoof over her mouth to suppress her smile, and her subsequent laughter. “Don’t be so discouraged, Dash! Your form seemed about right. Just keep up with it, and I guarantee you’ll be as good as me in no time.”         “If it was right, then why did it end up like that again?” The pegasus retorted from behind her hooves.         The unicorn rolled her eyes, but with a smile on her face. “If you really want to get it right, then here.” She stood on all fours, levitating another stone over to Dash. As the pegasus reluctantly took the stone in her hoof, she found out she didn’t have to wait long to see what Twilight was planning for her this time.         As the light clack of displaced stones registered somewhere in the back of her mind, the touch of one hoof draping around her shoulder, and another hoof coming level to her throwing leg definitely registered somewhere in the forefront of her mind.         “Twilight... what are you doing?” She felt the strange need to trip over her words. She hadn’t asked Twilight to get this close to her!         “What?” Twilight’s voice came from right behind her. “I’m teaching you how to throw, of course. You’ll get it a lot faster if I can guide your motions and direct your form,” she said nonchalantly.         “Oh. Right. Of course.” Dash seemed to be perfecting her one-word responses today.         “Don’t mention it.” Twilight deadpanned. “Now, your grip seems to be good, and so does your starting position...” she murmured. “Okay, you’re going to want to throw like...” she gripped Dash’s leg with her own, bringing it back slightly, then guiding it forward, “this. Don’t angle the stone when you’re throwing it, just your leg. Follow through when you let go, and...”         And off she went into lecture-land. Dash rolled her eyes, but found she couldn’t focus. She was pretty sure she caught most of the important stuff, anyway. In the back of her mind, she was aware of the light breeze of breath across her neck,  rustling her coat and mane, and generally getting in the way of her paying attention-         -“So you got all of that?” Luckily, those words decided to stick themselves out, so that Dash could snap herself out of whatever she had been in.         “Of course, Twilight. Why wouldn’t I?” Dash rolled her eyes at Twilight. Sheesh.         “Okay, okay, I was just making sure!” The unicorn backed off chuckling, and she moved off of Dash, as if she was never there. “If you do really have it down, though, go ahead and try it without me helping you.”         Rainbow nodded, and scrunched her eyes up in concentration. Snatching up another stone, she brought it back, just as Twilight taught her. Mentally going over the steps in her head, she flung it forward after a moment. A grin spread across her face as the stone broke the surface, and bounced farther across the water, skipping twice before sinking.         “Yes!” She leapt up into the air, hooves spread wide. “Told you I could do it!”         “You’re welcome.” Twilight shot back, smiling. She plucked a rock from the pile, her grin from earlier again present. “Shall we?” -------------------------------------         They skipped in silence for a while, because really, what needed to be said? Dash was “in the zone,” after all, and talking would only mess everything up. Sure, every so often, she wouldn’t get any skips, or hops, or bounces, but they seemed to get less and less important, and, for that matter, less and less frequent as time went on. But still, a certain something tugged at the back of her mind with every throw.         It definitely wasn’t a contest. Both mares had their own pace, and Twilight didn’t even throw her stones at the same time. Yet on some occasions, Dash couldn’t even count how many times one of Twilight’s throws skipped across the surface of the lake. She could definitely count her own: none had skipped more than three times. With each successive throw, her eyes narrowed a little bit more, and her tongue poked out of her mouth a little bit farther, but she still couldn’t even come close.         Hey, at least I’m actually skipping them now... she reminded herself, glancing at the unicorn beside her, right as Twilight was in the motion of throwing another one. Only then did something strike her as odd.         “Hey, Twilight?”         “Hm?” She didn’t even seem surprised by Dash’s sudden speaking up.         “Why aren’t you using your magic or something? Wouldn’t that be, I dunno, ‘easier?’” She gestured with her hooves to finish her sentence.         Twilight shrugged, but didn’t turn her gaze from overlooking the lake. “I don’t know, actually. It’s probably because I always liked to do this after one of Princess Celestia’s particularly difficult magic lessons.” She paused, letting another one fly. Dash swore that she counted ten skips before losing sight of it. “My magic was always so used up by the end of the day, and I guess it interested me because always saw the older ponies doing it when I went with my family to the park.”         She picked up another stone, a small smile now on her face. “I always practiced in the gardens after my class was over. Since my magic was pretty much gone, I just learned like any other pony would. And I never bothered to learn it any other way.”         Wait. Was she cradling her stone? “Twilight-”         “But one time, Princess Celestia found me in the garden, throwing stones like nothing else. I was afraid she would be mad at me, since all of those stones must have scared the poor fish living there...” She began to drag a hoof absently, and Dash knew there was no saving her, until Twilight herself decided to snap out of it. “Of course, I had to do a report on the physics of skipping stones afterward. It wasn’t my finest work, but now I know everything there is to know about the subject.”         Like she was coming out of a trance, she turned to Dash. “What? Is something wrong?”         Dash shook her head slowly, but her half-smile and unsurprised eyes said otherwise.         Confused, Twilight looked back over the lake, eyes widening when she saw the sun nestled between two hills that lay across the water. “Ah! I should’ve been home hours ago! Spike’s probably so worried about me...” She swept her notes up in a magical glow, and turned to leave.“ItwasniceseeingyoutodayDashbye!” she threw over her shoulder as she half-trotted, half-ran to the edge of the shore, where she would soon disappear among the trees.         “Hey.” The word made the unicorn stop cold and turn back around. They faced each other at the same time, Dash wearing her signature smirk again. “Thanks. For today, I mean. It was... I had a good time. We should hang out like this more often.” She rubbed the back of her neck. To her, normal, boring old, “regular” conversation seemed just a bit uncool, and it showed.         To her relief, Twilight only giggled. “No problem. And I had fun too, even if it was just ‘hanging out.’ Well,” she looked around briefly, “I guess I’ll see you later, then.” She turned around, and just like that, she was gone.         Dash’s gaze lingered on the spot where Twilight had last been. She automatically shook her head, turning back to her pile. Which, to her surprise, wasn’t really a pile anymore. A single stone lay there, and Rainbow wouldn’t have even known it had been part of her collection earlier, if she hadn’t been returning to it all day.         She picked the last one up, turning it over in her hooves for a moment, before priming it to throw. Just this last one, and she would go home. Because Twilight was right: she would be here all night if she didn’t try to stop herself. After all, there were still so many stones, just waiting to be skipped.