Chapter 1: A Day in the Life
“Enough!”
Photo Finish stomped the ground, causing her camera to jump into the air and close itself. One of her assistants quickly caught it and zipped away. The pony who had been modeling stood in confusion and looked around the studio. It was a very modern and chic looking room, with simplistic furniture in striking primary colors. She herself stood on a large blue platform, the countless lights aimed at her making it hard to tell what exactly was going on.
“Did... did I do something wrong?” the model stammered.
In a flash, Photo Finish was standing beside her, clearly inspecting the model through her thick, rose tinted lenses. The pink earth pony was classically attractive, and her blue mane and eyes complemented her coat well, but Photo Finish was looking for more than that. The model struggled to not make eye contact, scratching at the platform under her with her hoof. Photo Finish pulled back, returning to her usual poised stature before turning to head out the door.
As she was about to exit the room, Photo spoke without turning her head. “Vun of my assistants vill be shpeaking to you about a contract, Miss Aloe.”
The smile that came across the model’s face was nearly audible, and Photo Finish allowed herself to mirror it slightly. These were the moments she loved the most in her work. That wondrous feeling as you make another pony’s dreams come true. It made the long photo shoots worthwhile. Deciding that her work was done for the day, she whipped her tail with an audible crack and exited the room.
Photo Finish shut the door to her Canterlot penthouse gently and slid the many locks into place. No ponies around to watch her, she finally dropped her serious and critical demeanor with a sigh. This place was her sanctuary, the only place she had where she could relax and be herself. The apartment was as modern and classy as everything else in Photo’s life. She reflexively glanced out the huge, floor to ceiling windows, watching as the towers of Canterlot’s upscale district melted into the mountains as the sun set. One of the walls had a large sliding door that led out to her private garden, a serene little plot of flowers and plants she had designed personally. One of her favorite things to do in her free time was relax on one of the countless cushions in her garden reading, planning shoots, or just otherwise slowing down from her hectic life.
Sadly, the summer evening was still a bit too hot to be lazing around outside when the indoors were nice and conditioned. Tired and needing to collapse, Photo flopped down on one of her couches, happy to finally be off her hooves. The photo shoot had gone late, and she wanted to change out of her usual clothes, but no harm in laying down a bit first.
Glancing over at the clock, she saw it was nearly eight, and she had promised to meet a friend for tea and a chat around nine. That meant she could afford to lay around for maybe another fifteen minutes. But there was one thing she could do without much effort. She reached for her face and pulled her goggles off, setting them down on her coffee table. The whole world was so... teal. The effect was so familiar, but still managed to seem surreal every day. Photo laid back, letting her rose colored eyes adjust to seeing an unfiltered version of the world. She stretched, trying to let some of the tenseness out of her muscles, particularly her shoulders.
After a few more minutes of laying in a dazed half stupor, Photo Finish decided that getting out of her dress was worth the effort of standing back up and walking the ten feet it’d take to reach her room. She did so slowly, slightly wishing she could just ditch her friend and go to sleep here and now. But no, she was too loyal a friend for that. And besides, she was going for tea. That’d help her stay awake.
She stepped into her room and plopped down at the stool in front of her mirror. She sat there, staring at herself for a while. Damn she was good at this. When she first had the idea, she expected she’d be found out in a matter of weeks. Now, six years later, she had never even heard of a pony so much as suspecting her. But still, there was room for improvement. She scowled slightly as she noticed a few orange hairs under her bangs that had probably been sticking out for much of the day.
Photo pulled out a drawer which contained only a bust of the same size as her own head. With one quick motion Photo pulled off her mane and set it in its place on her surrogate, closing the drawer. In its place, a tousled rainbow colored mess finally flopped down from where it had been trapped under the wig. She messed with her mane a bit, getting it back how she liked it, before turning back and tugging off her fake tail.
Quickly pulling off her dress and tossing it on her bed, Rainbow Dash unfurled her wings for the first time since she woke up. As she finally got to relax her nearly locked up muscles, she let out a sigh of relief. Her dress’ belt no longer holding her real tail out of sight, she waved it around, letting it feel the breeze.
Dash leapt skyward from her stool, half to stretch her whole body and half out of sheer joy at being free of her luxurious disguise. Today had been a long shoot. Far too long. It was tiring enough being Photo Finish for a few hours at a time, whole days were downright exhausting. And this was coming from the mare about to do what she had planned next.
Rainbow Dash fluttered gently out the door and to her gardens. Suddenly kicking off the ground and ripping skywards, she slammed into a cloud, popping out the top and resting on it. A quick scan of her surroundings and she pounded off the cloud, scattering it into vapor. Her destination: Ponyville.
Not fifteen minutes after departing Canterlot, Rainbow Dash was over Ponyville, and after a quick cool down lap around town, she set down on the landing of her cloud home. This flight had become the norm for her, usually making it once or twice a day. Say what you will about convenience, doing a marathon to get to work was good exercise.
She still had over half an hour to head down to the library, so Dash decided a quick shower might be nice. She snagged a passing cloud and pulled it over herself before bucking it hard. The cloud poured its contents out over Dash, rinsing off the day’s sweat and grime. Always one of the nicer moments in her day, Rainbow took the time to slow down and savor the cold water. Sadly, like any time she tried to take a moment to relax, she realized that Photo still had a pile of work to do, in this case layouts for the next issue of her magazine. Once the tiny storm decided it was done, she pushed it on its way and shook herself off briskly. She had time still to get to the library, so she decided to do a little work before she left. Purposely leaving the document nondescript for risk of being spotted with it, Photo started sketching out rough plans by memory of what shots she wanted to include. Not perfect, but it'd save her time later.
As if in response to her thought, the Ponyville clock tower chimed in the distance. After a short pause to regard it, the blood ran out of Dash's face. She was late. Shoving the layouts into her desk drawer, she bolted out the door and took to the air. In a flash, she had reached the library and landed on Twilight's balcony. A glance over to the clock tower confirmed that only about two minutes had passed since it had chimed. Passable. Noticing the door to the balcony open, and already plainly invited, she stepped in the door.
“Yo Twi, you in h...” Dash started to shout. She took pause as she heard what sounded like two ponies talking downstairs. Shrugging, Dash walked over to the door and cracked it slightly to listen.
“That sounds wonderful, Rarity, I’m so happy for you!” Twilight’s unmistakable voice replied to some unknown statement.
“Oh, isn’t it, though? I can’t believe she’s giving me a second chance like this! I just hope I don’t make a foal of myself like I did last time,” Rarity continued.
Rainbow Dash took this as her cue, “Making a foal of yourself? Can I help?”
Rarity shot Dash a stern glare for a few moments before her face twisted to one of confusion, “Wait, Dash, when did you get here?”
“What? oh,” Dash soared down the stairs and set down between her friends, “Just landed a few seconds ago.”
Rarity looked over at the front door for a second before turning back to Dash in confusion. Dash sighed, flared out her wings, and looked back at Rarity. It still took Rarity a few seconds to catch what was going on, but as soon as she did, her smile turned wry.
“Breaking and entering again, are we darling?”
Dash quickly got defensive, pointing a hoof at Rarity, “Hey, I didn’t break nothing!”
Twilight quickly put a hoof in front of each of their faces, “Shoosh.”
Rarity settled down, looking apologetically at Twilight, “Oh, darling, we were only teasing one another.”
“Uh, yeah. I knew that,” Dash quickly replied, lowering her accusatory hoof.
Shaking her head, Twilight spoke up, “I left the balcony door open since I figured Rainbow would probably be flying in.”
“Oh, you were expecting her?” Rarity sat back slightly, looking worried she had committed a faux pas, “Shall I head off then? I mean, if you two were planning something.”
Twilight stood confused for a second, “What? No, you’re perfectly welcome to stay, Rarity. We totally weren’t having like... a secret meeting or anything.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Dash said reassuringly, “What were you talking about when I showed up?”
The glow returned to Rarity’s face as she remembered her reason for excitement, “Well, you simply won’t believe this, but I just managed to get back in contact with none other than Photo Finish!”
“Woah, really? That’s pretty cool. I think...” Dash glanced over at Twilight, who was hiding a knowing smile behind her tea cup.
“Oh, it’s more than ‘cool,’ darling. It means I have another chance! With the way she simply ignored me before, I thought she’d never have interest again, but here I am months later and I get a letter.” Rarity quickly pulled a small envelope out of her saddlebag and floated it over to Dash.
Dash pretended to read the letter, already knowing what it said. She wrote it recently while feeling particularly regretful for that incident many months ago. It was certainly not one of Dash’s better moments. She wrote this letter in hope she could make amends on behalf of her other self. It sure seemed to be working.
“Oh, I’ve been so excited! I simply had to tell somepony, and Twilight here lives closest, after all. So, here I am,” Rarity was simply beaming with joy at the letter she so happily held in her magical grasp. Photo Finish quickly looked Rarity over, as always enjoying the looks of excitement she could bring to ponies, before Rainbow Dash managed to pop back to reality.
“Well, I’m happy for you, I guess. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this excited, actually,” Dash chuckled.
“Yeah,” Twilight responded flatly, “You almost look like how Rainbow gets when she sees a Wonderbolt.”
“Hey!”
The three mares all broke into a fit of the giggles. Despite how much these two hated doing anything really active, they were a fun pair to hang around sometimes. Dash slouched back onto a cushion and took a sip of her tea. Chamomile. No caffeine. Her brain cried foul at being stiffed the promised stimulants. Dash rubbed her temple.
“Oh, but how the time gets away from me,” Rarity spoke up, “I have to go pick up my sister from Sweet Apple Acres. See you two tomorrow, perhaps?”
“Sure, I’ll be here all day,” Twilight responded with a smile.
Dash simply shrugged, “I’ll probably be asleep until like… noon.”
“Dash,” Rarity complained as she stood, “All you ever do is sleep.”
“I do a lot more than you’d think,” a disgruntled Dash replied, “I barely get any sleep at all.”
Not wanting to drag it into an argument, Rarity simply changed the subject, “Well, regardless, I hope to see you two around. Oh, I just can’t wait to get home and draft a letter in response! I’m practically bubbling, look at me. Well, ta-ta!”
As Rarity left, Twilight struggled to keep her composure, "Dash, I'm so glad you let me in on this."
Rainbow sat back, holding back her own laughter, and took another sip of the tea. She was glad, too. Having a co-conspirator after so long was refreshing. She wanted to tell a close friend and Twilight was just the natural choice. Applejack would have teased her until the end of time. As for Fluttershy and Rarity, well that still felt like hot territory given what had happened. Pinkie? No, just no. On the other hoof, there was Twilight, who when she found out was honestly more fascinated than shocked. A welcome response, in Dash's opinion.
Breaking from her moment of thought, Rainbow turned to Twilight and posed, “So whattya think she’d do if she found out it was me? uh... I was her. She was... you know, forget it.”
Still clearly amused, Twilight shook her head, “No idea. I think she’d be too shocked to really respond.”
Dash took another sip of her tea and looked in the direction of the door Rarity just left through. She’d probably write a letter back tonight, so Dash’d have to stop by Photo’s penthouse tomorrow to pick up the letter and see exactly how much of Rarity’s excitement came through on paper.
There was a quiet moment, and this caught Dash’s attention. Twilight was looking at her quizzically. “Why did you choose to send her that mail? Because you felt bad about what happened before? But then, why did you do that back then? You should have known it...”
Twilight’s speech was cut off by Dash’s hoof in her mouth, “One question at a time.”
“Ah, right,” Twilight recovered, “So basically, what was the deal with getting Rarity’s hopes up before and then dragging off Fluttershy?”
Dash stopped for a moment, trying to think of the best way to paint her actions. They weren’t exactly the most noble, so it was taking some effort. “Basically… well… it felt right at the time.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow in suspicion, “Dash, you’re being evasive.”
Dash broke eye contact and nearly whispered, “It was sort of payback.”
“Payback?” Twilight inquired, “What did Rarity ever do to you?”
“She inshulted my taste in fashion,” Photo replied, “I thought it vas fitting to do the same in return.”
Twilight looked at her annoyedly.
“Ja, I know it vas a shtupid decision,” Photo continued, “I didn’t realize how much it vould hurt her at the time.”
Twilight’s stony expression broke for half an instant as she stifled a laugh, which only made Dash look at her confusedly. With a smile, Twilight simply said, “Acshent.”
Dash blushed vividly and cleared her throat loudly before continuing, “Well, so yeah. I messed up. Bad. And now I’m trying to make up for it so I don’t have to keep feeling bad for having done it.”
Twilight took a large bite out of a small cookie, “Well, just don’t do something dumb like that again.”
Dash simply nodded and took another sip of tea. She regretted having treated Rarity so poorly. Well, Dash did. Photo still felt no qualms about the matter. Not that she still held a grudge, she just considered the response a fair one. Still, it bugged Rainbow, but now she had a chance again. Hopefully she wouldn’t get touchy over something and overreact again. She lazily watched her tea swirl around in the cup for a few moments before chiming back into conversation.
“So I finally managed to do it.”
Twilight perked back up, “Do what?”
“Book a shoot with the Wonderbolts.”
Dash sat there with a blank, emotionless expression, but the glow in her eyes gave away the sheer, unadulterated joy. Soon, the corners of her mouth joined in to form the rest of the smile and her hooves made it to her cheeks shortly thereafter. She tried with all her might to hold in the fangirl squeal. She failed.
Twilight couldn’t help but take joy in her friend's success, “That’s so wonderful! I’m really happy for you. I know how hard you’ve been trying to do this. How’d you get them to agree to it?”
Dash snapped out of her ecstatic stupor in order to respond, “They wanted to hire somepony to do shots of them for a magazine article. I don’t think I need to tell you how fast I jumped at that.”
Pouring Dash another cup of tea, Twilight continued to question Dash. “So when do you meet with them? And also... how do you plan on covering for Photo being interested in doing this?”
“I’m talking to Spitfire next week about when to do the shoot,” Dash replied quickly, her grin returning. When the second question settled in properly, her expression drooped again, “Oh, uh... cra- crud. why would I be doing this?” She sipped her tea as she began to worry, “I... I’ll think of something. Probably.”
“Well...” Twilight struggled to come up with reassurance, “at least you have the whole week.”
Dash looked back up at her and smiled weakly, “yeah, I’ll come up with something.”
Sensing that the subject was running out of things to discuss, Twilight awkwardly changed the topic for what would not be the last time that night. Countless things were discussed that night, ranging from idle chat about daily goings on to Dash teasing Twilight over some silly crush. Overall, Dash was just happy to have somepony she didn’t have to hide herself around. Somepony she could talk to about both of the lives she led. Three hours and seven pots of proper, caffeinated tea later, Dash decided she’d been up way too many hours and needed to rest. There was one thing left to ask, though.
“Say Twilight, you’re real good at magic.”
“Yeah, I heard something about that too,” Twilight teased.
“I... What?” Dash stumbled over her thoughts in confusion before catching the sarcasm, “Ha ha, very funny. But seriously, I have a question for you.”
“Rainbow with a magic question? It must be serious,” she continued to joke.
Ignoring that, Dash went on, “Can you change how things... look?”
“What, you mean illusions? Sure, I know tons of varieties,” Twilight replied, suddenly much more serious, “Are we talking about just optical, or also auditory and olfactory? Also, do you mean one that’s free standing or bound to a pony? Are you...”
Dash interrupted her with a hoof to the mouth again., “Basically, I’m tired of having to wear a wig and tail.”
Twilight nodded, gently pushing Dash’s hoof to the side, “That’s quite easy, really. Simple, low power spell. Now if you wanted something that let you switch between the two looks easily, that might be more of a thing. I could look into it for you, if you like?”
“Would you do that for me?” Dash pleaded. “I’m so tired of how itchy my scalp gets. It’s horrible. You don’t even know,” she scratched her mane for emphasis before continuing, “Also, this one’s probably harder, but is there anything you can do about hiding my wings?”
Twilight shook her head reflexively, “That’s certainly a harder one to pull off, if it’s possible at all. I‘d have to do some research into pegasus and unicorn magic entanglement... But hey, I’ll see if I can find anything.”
Twilight squeaked as she received a sudden hug from Dash, a rather uncommon expression of affection coming from that particular mare. Dash broke the hug as abruptly as she started it and sat back down in embarrassment, “Yeah uh… it’s just… sort of hard to explain, but I’ll owe you big time for this. Not really sure if I’ll ever be able to repay you properly.”
“No need, it’s not like it’ll take too much effort. And come on, you’re one of my best friends. I’d do this even if it wasn’t easy,” Twilight smiled.
Grin on her face, Dash thanked Twilight a few more times before saying good night and heading up to her cloud. More than happy to head off to sleep, she remembered the magazine layout, hastily shoved in a desk drawer. Deciding to take it out and do a little more work, Photo sketched away for some time. Eventually, truly and properly tired, she checked a clock. Well past midnight. Whoops, that's enough of that. Within seconds of her head hitting her pillow, Dash was sound asleep.
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My mind. She is blown.
This is exceptionally interesting. :3
So... I haven't seen anyone work with this idea in a long, long time
Quite a neat idea. And I assume the spell will fail one time.
By the by you can see Photo taking a picture of the main cast in the opening, Rainbow included.
This...
This is... Unique.
My only gripe is that it's not double spaced. As is, it's murder on the eyes.
Ah well, personal peeve more than anything.
Edit: Downvotes for preferring double space? Gee, thanks.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Rainbow Dash always dress in style.
This story made me think of this old comic...
derpicdn.net/img/2012/6/19/8942/full.png
LOVE IT
Even reading the description and knowing something like this was coming, even with the name of the story being such an obvious hint, I gotta admit: this is the one thing I definitely wasn't expecting.
Heh, I've heard of this wild theory before, but the closest I've ever seen to it in fic form was one where Photo was Dash's mom.
Immediately from the first scene I'm hooked. It was a completely solid establishment of Photo Finish as a character, making callbacks to the episode she was in and adding an internal monologue that justify her actions and show what her motivations are. It didn't get too wordy, with the physical descriptions of the scene being all about color and design—which is something she would definitely be paying attention to.
The second scene was less intense, but that was okay. She was tired, she revealed her disguise to the reader, she went off to visit her friend at... 9 in the evening. But I was distracted by my internal questions and revelations about this dynamic. It would explain why Rainbow sleeps so much, and what she does with all her time. It makes for an interesting hobby that Rainbow likes photography and composition while also fulfilling her desire for fame and inadvertently getting lots of exercise out of it. It goes against what's established in Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3 that Rainbow remembers things well when flying, though maybe by running around a room taking shots she's simulating that sort of experience. It's clear the author put a lot of thought into this.
The third and final scene, mostly filled with dialogue—payoff. Answers to all the questions I had, even bringing up some things I hadn't thought about, and establishing the setting for the story. Most importantly, it took all these big ideas and set up the premises for plenty of events to happen later in the story, which I'm eager to continue reading to find out what happens.
Wow. Congratulations on making the feature box, especially on your first story! I only had to read the first chapter and this is already much better than most of the drivel I've read on this site.
Annnnnnnnd I'm hooked.
7296322 any chance of a link to that fic as I've done a search for it based of description and got nothing back
Somehow, this story is turning out even better than the concept in the description suggests. It has everything I love in a story and it pulls off the characters just perfectly. I literally squeed when Rainbow fell into her accent while talking about her work.
Third Read-through, noticed this before but forgot to mention it... Dash Forgot to ask Twi for something to hide her Cutie Mark. While her mane will give her away faster than you can say Sonic Rainboom at a distance, if anyone who even knows her in Passing sees that up close it'll give her away anyway. I sure hope she either has a solution already available, or Twilight remembers on her own and figures something out to go along with the Mane and Tail glamours.
Something about this gave me a really bad headache. I can't put it into words, but I've got a crippling migraine now. It's probably petty to blame the story for that, but I feel like it has something to do with the way the paragraphs are not double-spaced.
Seems like an intriguing idea, sorry I couldn't read it more.
66.media.tumblr.com/6b072c97bbb74a3dd91b68566181abf2/tumblr_mws3fcM8Ne1r6l5jbo1_1280.jpg
Awesome intro, it definitely picked my curiosity.
Nice work.
7293083 Nah, that's a Pinkie Clone with a really good disguise!
7293083 The opener of any show is NEVER cannon. It may contain flashes of the episode or be made of clips from the season, but the characters will never talk about it.(Also, I'm pretty sure that picture isn't even cannon. I've never seen Celestia with it)
Edit: Okay, so the picture is a thing. Well excuse me for not reading ahead.(Also, who downvoted this? I don't know since my notifs don't work properly when I'm still reading the story)
Ohoho, I like this story already. Lets see what shenannigans are in store.