“Schnell, Fraulein!” Photo Finish hollered from across the apartment. “Fly sviftly! Make ze art magiks like ze vind!”
“Erm... but... uhhh...” Rainbow fidgeted in midair. “That's kinda sorta what I've been doing for the past two hours.”
“Do not argue with Photo Finish!” the mare exclaimed, stomping her hooves. “Sinking is your vorst enemy! Do not pause to kontemplate! Simply live and brease zat vich you know by heart!”
“Well, alright.” Rainbow shrugged, dipped two hoofbrushes into separate cans of paint, and held them in the crooks of her hooves. “I'll have a go!” Holding her breath, she dove off the table with both brushes trailing after her. Specks of paint dribbled across a sea of haphazardly set plastic sheets all across the apartment floor. At last, Rainbow Dash soared over a plain white canvas in the center of the room—only it wasn't plain or white anymore. Two hours of swift fly-by's had left a myriad of multi-colored paint streaks all across the surface, almost as complex and vibrant as Rainbow's own prismatic mane itself. Diving low, Rainbow added two more streaks to the chaotic mosaic. While Photo cooed and cheered in the background, the pegasus swung around, came for another turn, and added yet another pair of streaks.
“Ja! Ja!” Phot squirmed and hopped in place. She fanned herself while condensation clung to her rosy shades. “True spontaneity and beauty at its finest! Fraulein, I, Photo Finish, do believe zat you hafe made a doppelganger of yourself in zis field!”
“I'll... uh... pretend to understand that.”
“Nein! Do not understand! If it slows you down to ascertain, zen ignore it! Be ze air and make movement!”
“Oh, I can make movement alright.” Rainbow held her breath, dipped the brushes in two different colors, and swung by again. “Aaaaaaaaaaand... zoop!”
“Squee!” Photo grinned, her cheeks rosy as she danced around the canvas. “Sehr gut! Such magnificent inshpiration! I svear, you vere foaled to make colors and lines blend!”
“I dunno, P.F.” Rainbow smirked breathlessly from where she hovered in mid-air. “It just looks like a bunch of weird squiggly lines to me.”
“Ze squiggles become you! And you become ze squiggles! Don't you see, fraulein?” Photo leapt up and grabbed Rainbow's hooves.
“Whoah!” Rainbow dropped the brushes to the plastic sheets as she felt herself being dragged down to the apartment floor.
“Ze magiks happen in ze moment!” Photo exclaimed as the two petite ponies spun around by their conjoined forelimbs. “Hah hah hah! Ja! It cannot be planned or konstructed at length! Zere is no tomorrow or yesterday! Only ze vild and unpredictable now!”
“You m-mean like th-this?!” Rainbow chuckled helplessly. “Careful, girl, or you'll pop a muscle!”
“I cannot help it!” Photo twirled with a graceful pirouette. “Ze magiks! Zey consume me—whoah! Ach je!” She teetered and plummeted towards the floor.
“Gah!” Rainbow caught the mare, albeit haphazardly. Both plummeted into a pile of plastic sheets. “Ooomf!”
Photo clutched her tummy, giggling wildly.
Rainbow sat up, blowing her bangs out from her forehead. “Horseapples, girl!” Rainbow smirked. “Anypony ever tell you that you're a few feathers short of a duster?”
“Heeheehee! Ja! I hafe been kalled many sings!” Photo chuckled and chuckled. She lay back with her forelimbs curled over her chest as she smiled at the painting. “Ahhhhh... if only zis insphiration came sooner...”
“Why do you say that?”
“Ach, Fraulein...” Photo rolled to the side with a gentle smile. “I, Photo Finish, vould not vish to make ze moment bitter.” She gulped, her smile remaining in a faint haze. “But, suffice it to say zat zere are more days behind zan ahead.”
“Oh, come on now...” Rainbow shrugged, smiling across the plastic sheets at the mare. “You don't know that.”
“Ah, but I do...” Photo's breaths evened out, and she reached a pair of hooves up to her shades. “Vhen my husband left me, he left a korpse in ze makink, only ze korpse knew it not... vhich is vhy he kouldn't shtand to bear ze grief on his own.” The shades camed off, and a pair of glossy eyes appeared like jaded sapphires. In the dim light of the apartment, they made Photo's pale blue face look empty and hollow. “And vith time, zat korpse kame to undershtand ze frailties of all magiks visout him, art or none.”
“I...” Rainbow blinked, her muzzle scrunching. “I'm afraid I don't read you.”
“Zere are fery few who kan.” Photo gulped, her eyes turning thinner. “Efen Photo Finish herself. Ja... such a perilous journey vhen vone knows ze destination is zat much kloser.” She glanced at the shades in her hooves. “Zat is vhy she has skoured ze city for truth and beauty.” Her lips curved. “Little did she know zat beauty would find her... a last glimpse of ze magiks.”
By this point, Rainbow Dash was trying her hardest not to wince. “Photo, I... I d-don't know if I'm exactly what you think I am—”
“Nein. In ze end, it is vhat ve all choose to sink, ja?” Photo glanced tiredly across the way. “All I see in you is ze magiks zat you make. Das ist toll. And so is ze magiks zat ve all hafe to make, efen vhen ve don't realize it.”
“Whatever you're struggling with, Photo, I'm sure you'll pull through,” Rainbow said. “I mean... y-you're a strong mare!”
“Hmmmm. Shtrong? Maybe. A dreamer, perhaps.” Photo sniffled, gazing towards the night-drenched windows. “My body shtarted failink me months ago. At first, Photo Finish kould manage. Zen ze faintink shpells began visout varnink. I shtarted to vonder if ze day vould kome sooner zan later vhen I vould no longer be able to shpeak vith meine Hanses.” Her eyes briefly lit up. “But zen... I had a fision... a vondrous hallucination of ze magiks.” She gulped, stretching her forelimb out. “I kame to, and I saw meine hoof outstretched towards ze heavens... and I vas releasing doves—ja, an entire flock—and zey were fillink ze sky with brilliance and kolor. Such inexplicable birds, like klouds from ze core of meine lungs.” Her eyes narrowed. “I realized I, Photo Finish, shtill had vone final masterpiece to make. Zis next party at ze apartment... I vill impress eferypony... I vill make ze Hanses proud, efen if it's ze last sink zat I do...”
“That's... that's one heck of a plan, Photo,” Rainbow said. “But there's no need to talk about it as if it's your last.”
“Ah, Fraulein...” Photo smiled tiredly at the pegasus. “Don't you see? It does not matter. Zere is so much beauty in meine life now. And you...” She smiled and shut her eyes. “You are ze doves...”
Rainbow chuckled, rolling over to stare up at the ceiling. “That... that's kind of pushing it.” A gulp. “If anything, I've always seen myself as something of a falcon.” Her brow furrowed. “Though my friends would probably say 'an albatross.'” A beat. “But, y'know, that's super nice of you, Photo.” Silence. “Photo?” She glanced aside.
The mare's eyes were shut. Her lips pursed as her body rose and fell in slow, slumbering breaths. A lingering smile clung to the photographer's face.
Rainbow blinked. Slowly—carefully—she stood up, trotted over, and slid her hooves under Photo's figure. It was frightening just how light the mare's body was. Still, Rainbow flapped her wings, lifted the pony, and carried her over to a comfortable sofa far away from the plastic sheets and paint splatters. Once Photo was lying on the cushions, she squirmed and curled up with a quiet murmur, then was once more fast asleep.
Rainbow drifted back, hovering at length. A scrawny shadow crawled out of the far corner and stood beneath her.
“I... uh... I'm rather ass over elbow when it comes to saying poignant things at a moment such as this.”
“Then don't,” Rainbow grunted without looking at him.
Nevertheless, the statue scratched his chin and glanced up at the mare. “You're never going to find out the code from her, are you?”
“I'm not sure I even have to.”
“Huh?”
“Isn't it obvious, Lancie?” Rainbow drifted downward and spoke over her shoulder. “Photo intends to unveil some sort of 'masterpiece' at the upcoming open house. I don't think I've had the chance to lay my eyes upon this thing. And I can think of one good reason.”
Lancie gulped. “It's inside the vault.”
“Right.” Rainbow nodded. “She'll open it for us. And when she does...”
“You'll grab what we came for as planned, right?”
“... ... ...”
“Yoohoo. Equestria to Sparky.”
“I need to get some sleep,” Rainbow muttered, turning from Photo and drifting towards the far end of the apartment. “All of this craziness has gotten me tuckered out.”
“Well, I'm not tired in the slightest!”
“Tough cookies,” Rainbow grunted. “You were an idiot for coming here in the first place.”
“Hey, Sparky.”
“Yeah, what, Lancie?”
“...you can't help ponies who won't help themselves. You know that, right?”
Rainbow paused by the hallway. She took a deep breath, then frowned. “Yeah, well, if some of us could be paid for preaching to the choir...”
Silence.
“Hrmmff... whatever...” Rainbow sighed her way into the room. “Find a place to hide. I don't want to wake up to the Hanses using you for a bayonet.”
“For once, we can agree on something.” Lancie took one last look at Photo's sleeping form and dashed off into the shadows to disappear.