Painting our Life - 6 Colors

InuKaT's Note

   Chapters will be short, I apologize a bit. I have the ending planned out, now I just need to write a bunch of filler chapters before any actual stuff happens. It might becoming romance-ish, I don't know. Well actually I do but I want to keep this story rated everyone. ^.^ Nothing explicit will happen. Ever. That's a promise I'll try to keep. Try.

   What feels like a smack to the face wakes me up. I groan and rub my aching head. I look up. It's Dash. At least I think it's her. I rub my eyes. Is it Dash? I don't know. Her arms are slimmer, legs too. She shrunk at least a foot, and her rainbow colored hair is a bit lighter than usual. The clothing she's wearing is very baggy. I don't remember buying baggy clothing for her. She doesn't have a driver's liscence either so she couldn't have bought it herself.

   "Ky, are you just going to stare at me or are you going to stand up?" Dash lends me a hand and pulls me up.

   "What happened to you? Did you shrink overnight?" She facepalms and grabs onto my hand. Then she pulls me to the washroom.

   "Look at yourself." She points at the mirror. Skinny. Short. That's all I could describe myself. I lied. I have a thousand more words to say about how I look now. Only one is most fitting.

   Younger.

   This was exactly how I looked nearly fourteen years ago, when I was sixteen or seventeen.

   "What the hell?!" I look at my arm. It was frailer. Now that Dash has stuffed it right into my face, I notice that the clothes I'm wearing are larger too. My t-shirt reaches near my knee and my jeans feel like they're going to fall off any second.

   "Twilight. It was Twilight. She came in last night and casted spells on us. Turned us younger," Dash sighs. "She came into my room and just whispered something quickly to me. I didn't catch what she said but before I knew it, her horn was glowing and she sent a light beamish thing flying at me. My body ached after that."

   "This sucks!" I say. My teenage years at the orphanage were perhaps the worst years of my life.

   "How could she!? I thought she was my friend and she comes and does this!" Dash let out a breath of anger. "Now we look like ten year olds!"

   "You mean sixteen year olds?"

   "Shut up, humans mature slower than ponies or something like that."

   "Well at least she didn't come and turn you back into a pony."

   "Bah! My legs feel a bit weaker! I have nearly the strength of a healthy human!"

   "Hey! Are you calling us weak?" She sticks her tongue out and mocks me.

   "I had extraordinary strength! Now all the wing power that was once in my legs and arms have vanished!" Dash crosses her arms and pouts. I sit down beside her.

   "Well, what do you want to do about this? We can't go to Equestria. Besides, I'M stuck like this too!" I point at myself. "Look at me! I'm more than a head shorter than I was!"

   "Ugh, Ky, why the hell is this happening?!" She buries her face in her hands out of frustration. "Why can't I just live my life without any intrusions? Damn it I hate this!" I sigh.

   "Let's just forget this for the moment and go down for breakfast." She looks up and let's out a whinish groan.

   I have no idea what of why Twilight would turn us back into teenagers, but I'm sure she has her reasons. And they better be good reasons because I can't go to work like this. I called in earlier and told my boss that I was going to France for a while to help with my cousins who were having trouble coping with life. It was a simple white lie and he fell for it easily. At the moment, I was glad I never told anyone at work about my heritage or where I was born. I don't have a family. Boss wished me good luck and I hung up. Hopefully Twilight would come back in the next few days and change us back. If not, the next few weeks.

   I checked my bank account and made note of how much was left. Being manager has made me rich. By calculation, there is at least enough money for Dash and I to live sustainably for another few months without me having to make more money. To be on the safe side, I'll search for a help wanted restaurant or store to work part time at later.

   "Might as well as live in the moment." Dash walks out of her room in one of her favourite cyan hoodies. Her rainbow hair is tied in a ponytail. Plopping her iPod into the pocket of her jeans, she pulls up the hood over her head.

   "What are you dressing up for?" I ask, scratching my chin in confusion.

   "I always wondered what it feels to go to the mall as a teenager. So take me."

   "What?"

   "C'mon man! Might as well as get something good out of this." She giggles and orders me to go grab my car keys. I sigh.

   In the car, she has her shades on while fumbling around with her iPod. I think technology has taken over her since she received fingers to use it better. I bite my lip, wishing Dash would understand the situation we're in. I guess not since she's used to adventures in Equestria and this is probably just something small to her but it's worth trying.

   "So you want us to spend money when I can't even go to work?"

   "Ky, you worry too much. It's just going to be for only a while. Besides, it'll be fun! Like a date or some sort."

   "What?!" My jaw drops. I'm sure as hell ponies didn't date back in Equestria. Where did she even get that word?

   "Just act like my boyfriend while I go through thousands of clothing articles. We're going to live like teenagers!" She chuckles and blasts Katy Perry on her iPod. I sigh.

   "Where did you even learn what a normal teenage girl does?"

   "Oh Kyle, it's called the Internet. You can find everything on there."

   "Remind me to disable our Internet subscription so Rogers doesn't bill us a million dollars each month."

   "Nooo-"

   "I'm just kidding, gosh." She exhales a breath of relief. "Oh, and please do not make me stand there and wait for you to change into millions of outfits." I've dreaded this for a while. I often hear the cooks chatting about the torture their girlfriends bring upon them when shopping. She nudges me.

   "That won't be fun! Please? Do it for me?" She begs. For the hundreth time today, I sigh.

   "Fine." Anything to make her happy. I pull into the parking lot of Stone Road Mall. It's Guelph's only mall, and it's been here for a long time and has gone through many modifications. There used to be a Zellers here, until it got moved to another block. Now Zellers belongs to the United States and every store is being transformed into a Target. I park the car and climb out. Then I enter the hell that is known as shopping for clothes with a girlfriend. It might not be so bad. Who knows?

   The door opens and we walk in. I gaze around, looking for any stores that may be of interest.

   "So, where do you-" Dash interupts me and grabs my hand. She points at a nearby La Senza Girl store.

   "Over there!" I bite my lip down to prevent myself from protesting. Like lightning, she bolts into the store, hand still attached to mine. So basically she just dragged me in. She browses the store quickly and throws a pile of clothing she picked into my arms. "Hold onto these for me while I try some on ok?" She grabs the outfit from the top of the pile and runs into a change room. I walk over to a change room waiting bench and sit down. Today is going to be a long day. I can feel it.

   "How about this?" Dash walks out in the millionth outfit she has tried in the past thirty minutes. Tight jeans. A blue leatherish jacket that isn't zipped up so it reveals the tee she is wearing. The tee says "Boys are dumb, throw rocks at them." I find the quote mildly amusing. I give her the thumbs up. Maybe she'll finally buy something now. "Nah, this is too... meh." WHAT THE HECK. I swear if I have to sit through another one of her fasion shows I am going to have a stroke.

   "Where did you develope this girly side anyways?" I mumble, "What happened to the dare devil Rainbow Dash?"

   "She's going to highschool, and she needs something to wear."

   "Come again?"

   "For Celestia's sake, didn't Twilight tell you anything last night?" She fumbles with the price tag on an article of clothing before tossing it to the side.

   "You're right, I should develope the power to listen while I'm knocked out." I roll my eyes. "Oh? And I suppose she told you anything?"

   "No, but she didn't have to. I don't know what her problem is, but she said she'll explain when she gets the chance to. And I was thinking, that might be a while." My jaw hits the ground. Dash calmly examines a green skirt with blue flower designs.

   "I can't stay like this forever! I have a job! It's bad enough I already lied to my boss, but what now? I have to go to HIGHSCH-" A hand stops me. Dash's hand. She smiles shyly.

   "C'mon, it'll be fun!" I sigh in defeat. For some reason, I took Dash more seriously when she was a pony. And she seemed more mature back then. Now she's acting like an actual teenaged girl. I want to remind her that we're both actually more than thirty years old.

   "Fine." Dash grins. I manage a smile. Maybe highschool won't be so bad. I might be able to make some new friends. A secon try at the life I never experienced. I look down at my clothing. Baggy. "Maybe we should get me a few new outfits too. Ones that actually fit me." Dash's eyes sparkle.

   "Bring out your credit card."