//------------------------------// // The Escapist // Story: Life in Technicolor // by ThePwnzorMuffin //------------------------------// “You should be honored, Rainbow.” “Why?” She didn’t know why she asked; the question was answered as a plate of steaming “pancakes” floated in front of her. “You’re the first one who gets to experience my home cooking!” Twilight must have seen a flash of fear in Rainbow’s eyes, because she quickly added, “Don’t worry, I’ve practiced a lot in preparation for this day. I think all of that practice paid off, since I didn’t have to use the fire extinguisher.” Rainbow looked to the mass of lumpy, steaming grey matter on her plate, then back to Twilight’s confident grin. “And that’s something you’re proud of?” Her friend’s grin vanished, and a pout took its place. “Of course!” A fork made its way to its rightful place beside the plate. “I’ve gone through every cookbook in this library.” She turned away from Rainbow as she heard her pan still sizzling from the residual oil, and heaped more of her creation onto a second plate. “I didn’t know you had a hundred copies of Basic Cooking For Dummies…” Rainbow muttered under her breath. “What was that?” Twilight still had her back to her as she set down the pan. “Uh…” A hoof went behind the pegasus’ head as she scratched her neck. “I was just thinking of how good this’ll be! Especially if you put that much practice into it! Right!” She tried her best to ignore the unused fire extinguisher on the counter: almost literally a red flag to her stomach and the pain she was about to put it through. If it even got that far down, of course… Twilight beamed, and Rainbow thought for a moment that her obvious lie was worth it. The idea vanished as quickly as it came. “Really, I don’t know why Spike was so hesitant to let me cook.” She set down her own plate, taking her seat across from Rainbow. “He deserves a break from something every once in a while.” She giggled at her own comment, and Rainbow smiled uneasily. “Thanks for the food…” Rainbow muttered, eyeing her meal from all angles. It still looked lumpy and grey. She didn’t know if she time had ever moved more slowly in her life as the fork cut into the “food” with a squelch. It took all she had not to cringe. She inched it towards her mouth, past the point of no return… “Oh.” It wasn’t after she took her first bite that she realized that a pair of violet eyes were staring into her. “It’s…” Something was off. Two pairs of eyes blinked.  Rainbow shook her head and stuck her tongue out before she figured out what it was. “It’s not bad!” Twilight frowned. “I feel like I should be happy about your reaction, but I’m not.” Her own pancakes sloshed around on their plate. “Ah, don’t be so picky, Twi. I’m just surprised, that’s all.” She waved away her friend’s concerns, but Twilight only narrowed her eyes. “Surprised at what? I told you, I’m a good cook!” She stabbed her fork into her pancakes for emphasis, but only succeeded in sending grey flecks of food everywhere. Dash was caught in the blast radius, but she didn’t even flinch. Instead, she stared at her friend’s slowly reddening face, her face unnervingly expressionless. “Twilight?” “Y-Yes?” The unicorn shrunk behind her plate, but it was no use. It was too small to use as a shield from Rainbow’s judgment. “Grey, lumpy pancakes should taste nasty, you know.” “Okay, okay.” Twilight sighed. “I know I still have some work-” “A lot of work.” “A lot of work to do.” Twilight cast her eyes down. And to think she’d improved so much already… “Hey, now.” Rainbow’s signature grin was back. “It’s a start. At least we know that you can cook stuff I can actually keep down.” Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but the pegasus shut down any opportunity for that by scarfing down the remaining portion of pancakes in about three bites. “Either that, or I was just hungry. Anyway, thanks for the breakfast Twi!” She flared her wings, knocking over her chair and a couple of glasses on the table. “I’m already late for work.” With a whoosh, she was gone. Twilight was left to stare at the spot that Rainbow had occupied just moments before. A good minute passed before she realized two things: “Why am I staring?” “Rainbow forgot her books…” ------------------------------ Dash came home to another neatly wrapped set of books on her doorstep. After unceremoniously dumping them on her table in favor of a much-needed drink, her attention was drawn to one book which had fallen to the ground in her carelessness. She set it down next to her glass of water, taking in the relatively simplistic cover: an array of stars against the black backdrop of space, some of them taking shape and spelling out the word “Forever?” “Sci-fi, huh…” She frowned. “I don’t think I can handle this stuff. Twilight should know that…” She shrugged and flipped to the back cover, reading it aloud. “What is the price of curiosity? Of discovery? Of the thirst for knowledge? Three brave expuh… expeditioners? venture out into the unknown and find their own answers.” “...Huh.” She had walked from her kitchen to her bedroom and flopped onto her bed, all the while staring at the back cover. “Sounds pretty deep.” ------------------------------- Time passed, and Twilight didn’t hear any news from Rainbow concerning book completion. She met with her at lunch and ran into her around town, but they had neither the time nor the personal space to even bring up Rainbow’s personal assignment, much less go into an in-depth discussion about it. Twilight found herself waiting for her pegasus friend to pull her aside with either a satisfied smile or a disappointed shake of the head, and every time she didn’t, she sighed to herself. Then, a week after the breakfast incident, as Twilight made her way back from the town market, her floormat made a strange crinkling sound instead of its usual rustling. She looked down and saw an envelope addressed, simply, “Twi.” Her spoils from the market momentarily forgotten, they all fell to the ground as she tore open the envelope with bated breath. Just finished it. I want to talk. Meet me at the lake. - Dash “In a good mood today, huh, Twilight?” Spike snickered as she closed the door behind her. “What? I guess so…” It wasn’t until then that she realized the smile on her face was a dead giveaway. She didn’t have time to correct herself, though. “Hey, didn’t you just go to the market? Where’s all the stuff I need to make dinner?” The baby dragon scratched his head, and Twilight’s eyes widened. “Oh, ponyfeathers! The bags!” Spike opened his mouth to question her further, then decided against it. ---------------------------- She had never been at the lake this late before. The moon was bright in the night sky, and when she looked down, she saw its shimmering reflection in the lake. The lights from the town didn’t reach the lake, so Twilight was offered a generous view of the vast array of lights, mere pinpoints in contrast to the moon, yet they still twinkled and shone. Twilight stood, transfixed, even though she’d seen this sight more times than she could count. It never ceased to amaze her- “Boo.” Twilight “Eep!”-ed shrilly at the sudden voice, partly because she had been completely distracted and partly because it was so close to her ear. She whipped around to find a grinning pegasus. “R-Rainbow Dash!” How dare she take advantage of her poor, helpless, best friend? “How did - when were - b-but I didn’t-” she stammered, unable to accept that she had been caught completely, utterly, and undeniably off-guard, red-hooved, and guilty as charged. “Hey,” Dash snickered, “I can be quiet when I have to.” Twilight gingerly patted her frazzled mane. “That aside, you didn’t call me out here to scare me, did -” she was denied the opportunity to finish her sentence, because Rainbow had swept a foreleg under hers, guiding it up to point at the sky. “Check it out.” Twilight tried to focus on where the pegasus was pointing, but the sudden contact was taking up all of her attention. Their faces were a breath apart, their breaths faced each other and mingled together. She tried to speak, but only found herself at a loss. Of breath, and for words. Probably because I still don’t know where she’s trying to get me to look. Maybe some clarification would solve her problem. “Dash… what are we looking at, exactly?” Her voice carried a hint of unsteadiness, and she cursed it. “That pattern thingy-” “Constellation.” Twilight jumped in with a correction, something she was comfortable with. “Right, that thing. You see that one, over there?” Rainbow shut one eye and inched closer to Twilight, adjusting the position of their forelegs. It didn’t work. “I see stars, that’s for sure…” Twilight deadpanned. “No, no, not that one.” She moved their hooves slightly to the left. “You know, it’s supposed to be a bear or something?” “...Rainbow, you’re pointing at the wrong one.” Twilight’s horn glowed, and a thin beam of light shot from it. Rainbow followed it up into the sky, and Twilight outlined her intended shape with her magical flashlight, moving her head slightly to trace the constellation. “That’s Ursa Minor. If we’re talking about your assignment, you can find the Big Dipper here.” “That’s where they went…” Rainbow murmured. Twilight stole a glance at her. The magenta in her eyes twinkled, a reflection of the night sky which held her attention now. “I take it you liked the book?” Twilight smiled. She’d found her voice again, just like that. Rainbow didn’t take her eyes off of the sky. “Oh, yeah, that’s why I wanted to talk to you. Well,” she unlocked her foreleg from Twilight’s and gave it a good stretch, falling rather than taking a seat on the ground. “I’d rather do it from down here.” Twilight frowned. The astounded, almost foal-like Rainbow from moments ago had just vanished. Then again, her first reaction towards the book did seem promising. She lay on her back beside Rainbow, and the two mares took in the sight of the sky just like they did a few weeks ago. “I gotta say,” Rainbow broke the silence first. “When I saw that you gave me a sci-fi book, I thought I wouldn’t like it.” Twilight couldn’t see her friend’s expression, just the outline of her head. Her polychromatic mane still managed to shine in the moonlight. “Too complicated, right?” Twilight guessed. Dash chuckled. “Yeah, something like that. Either you know me too well, or I’m just that easy to figure out.” She didn’t wait for a response. “Point is, I thought it would suck. And actually,” she shifted slightly, “it kinda did.” Twilight’s growing smile vanished. “What?” “Yeah, I just…” Dash shrugged. “I don’t know what it is exactly. Maybe it was that I hated all of the astronauts.” She brushed her mane out of her eyes, Twilight watching the whole time. “You know me. The last thing I’d do in an impossible situation is give up. Usually,” she added when the incident with Fluttershy at that very lake came to mind. “But all these guys did is complain! Like, sure, I get that you’re way out in space, millions of miles from home,” she spread her hooves out, gesturing to the expanse of space they lay under, “but complaining isn’t going to get you anywhere!” She sighed, shaking her head. “I spent most of the book pissed at how much whining was going on.” Twilight sighed her own sigh. “Any parts you actually liked?” She was already crossing that title off of her mental list, so she was surprised when Rainbow replied right away. “Yeah, I was getting to that. Don’t count me out yet, Twi.” She shot the flustered unicorn a wink. Twilight tried, and failed, to focus on Rainbow’s continued ramblings instead of her newfound mind-reading abilities. “...every time I saw you out stargazing late at night, I never really got it. I’ve always been more of a “daytime sky” kind of mare, heck, my freaking coat has the same color! There’s so much more you can do during the day. Like, come on,” she smirked, “the morning breeze blowing through your coat when you just woke up? How could you beat that? And yes,” she didn’t even look at Twilight’s skeptical gaze to acknowledge it, “I do wake up that early, when it’s still chilly out. And that’s just one good part of it. Don’t even get me started on sunsets and thermals. “Instead of all that good stuff, at night you just get a bunch of tiny little dots that you can’t even see sometimes.” She continued. “Boring, right?” Twilight gave her an unsure nod. “Well, that’s what I always thought.” Twilight watched as a faraway look began to take hold in her friend’s eyes. She looked up at the sky too, but quickly realized that Rainbow wasn’t looking for anything in particular. “But that book had some stuff in there about the night sky and space that was… Well, how do I put it…” The sound of Rainbow scratching her head, and then another moment of silence. “Beautiful.” The word sounded foreign coming from such a cocky pegasus. Twilight tried to voice her surprise in the least offensive way possible. “Really?” Fortunately, Rainbow didn’t seem to take offense. “Yeah, like when they were leaving the galaxy for the first time through that wormy thingy-” “Wormhole.” “Yeah, that.” She shook her head with a smile. “When they came out on the other side, the author described it as ‘a boundless array of vibrant, almost blinding color. The stars beckoned to them, inviting points of light that hinted at endless possibilities and sights even more beautiful than what lay before them. Looking further, the stars began to culminate in masses of pure brightness, and the entire crew’s eyes were drawn to the center of the galaxy. They found themselves speaking all at once. ‘That’s where we’re headed.’” Finished with reciting the passage, Rainbow turned to Twilight, surprised to find her mouth slightly agape. “Um, Twi? Were you listening?” Twilight blinked. “Oh, yes! I just…” She narrowed her eyes. “You memorized that whole thing?” The pegasus smirked. “You bet I did, big words and all!” She put a hoof to her chest proudly. “Want to know how many times I read that part?” Twilight found herself smiling along with her friend. “I’ll take the bait. How many times?” Rainbow was silent for a moment. “A lot of times.” She laughed, surprising Twilight with the gentleness it carried. Both ponies fell silent, gazing up at a night sky that was slightly different than the one Rainbow had just described. “My point is, I didn’t like that book.” The pegasus spoke up. “But there were parts in there that made it worth it.” Twilight frowned. “You didn’t find what you wanted, did you?” She already knew there answer, but she asked the question regardless. “Nope. But,” she turned and their eyes met, “that’s not really a bad thing.” All Twilight could manage was a “Huh?” “You heard me! It was worth it.” Rainbow broke their gaze and turned back up to the sky. “All that stuff about space and the night sky in there got me thinking, that maybe…” She stretched her front hooves out, and it looked to Twilight that she was trying to grab all of the stars in the night sky and cradle them all to herself. “Maybe there’s more to it than I’ve been giving it credit for. And,” Twilight could only stare as a completely uncharacteristic smile, one of contentment and curiosity all at once, overtook her friend’s features, “I want you to help me figure that out!” Heat rushed to Twilight’s face, and she could only hope that it was too dark for Rainbow to see. “M-me? Why me?” “Why not you?” Rainbow countered. “You’re Ponyville’s own astrology-” “Astronomy.” “Yeah, that’s what I said. You’re the expert, you probably know all the coolest places in town to stargaze,  and you even know the Princess of the Night personally! Come on, who else do you know that could help me?” Twilight could only smile. Rainbow had her there, and it wasn’t something she wanted to refuse anyway. “All right. When do you want to start?” “How about right now?” Any expression of surprise Twilight had in response was never said, because Rainbow was already up on all fours. “Come on, Twi’! There’s gotta be somewhere better than this place around here, right?” She swept her head every which way, but the trees that surrounded them more or less ensured that her effort was pointless. Twilight sighed, but it gave way to a smile. “Rainbow, I have to go back to the library to get my equipment if we’re going out tonight.” “Equipment? You mean that stuff that takes you forever to set up?” Twilight nodded. “Aw, why do we have to use that stuff?” Rainbow pouted, but her expression went unseen to her unicorn friend, who had already started the trip back to her home. “You wanted me to help you out, right?” Twilight called over her shoulder. “Since you did, I’m going to give you the best possible experience. And that means doing this my way.” She was already among the trees by the time she finished her sentence, leaving Rainbow no choice but to accept Twilight’s conditions and go after her. Despite her reservations, she couldn’t doubt her personal stargazing trainer. A smile crossed her face as she walked.