Twilight Sparkle hated Rainbow Dash.
No...no, that wasn't true at all. Twilight couldn't possibly hate Rainbow Dash. In fact, it was quite the opposite, really. In truth, Twilight was unfortunately and unequivocally in love with Rainbow Dash. What she really hated was the fact that she was in love with Rainbow Dash.
There had been a time where Twilight loved the fact that she loved Rainbow Dash. The four months during which they had dated fell into this category, though she'd been rather sure she loved Rainbow for a while before that. Loving Rainbow was wonderful and magical during that time. Every little thing that she did filled Twilight's heart with joy, because she was safe and secure in the knowledge that she loved Rainbow and Rainbow loved her right back.
But then that all had to change when Rainbow decided that she didn't love Twilight.
All things considered, it could have been worse. Twilight had read plenty of novels where the ponies breaking up yelled and screamed and fought, and there was thankfully none of that. Twilight had felt a teensy bit like yelling when Rainbow told her that she thought they were "better as friends," but all that came out were tears and sobs. Rainbow had held her and comforted her, much like she would have done if she'd seen her crying when they were dating, but it wasn't with the same degree of emotion.
Twilight had made a specific point of avoiding Rainbow since that day last week. She wanted to stay friends with her, of course, but right now it was just too painful even to think of her, let alone see her. Lunch plans were cancelled because they were at places where Rainbow would frequent. Alternate paths were taken to destinations; a concept which tore Twilight apart, as the new paths were not as quick and efficient as her usual ones. But it was a necessary evil. Right now, she just couldn't handle running into Rainbow Dash.
Ponies greeted Twilight as she made her way down the road towards her destination, just as they had been doing even before she was a princess. Ponyville was a mostly-friendly town; a fact which Twilight cherished more often than not. With her recent moods, though, it tended to be more of a hindrance than a boon. A friendly greeting from a pony called for a friendly greeting back. That rule applied to everypony, not just the Princess of Friendship. She could not and would not brush off a friendly greeting, but by this point, the other ponies had to be noticing the downgrade in the degree of cheerfulness inherent in her hellos. She felt bad about it, but it was just another drop in the rainbow-colored bucket of things she felt bad about.
Twilight sighed as she walked right past her favorite restaurant. In the old days, the before times when she was still happy, a meal at the Hay Burger would bring her almost as much joy as a trip to Donut Joe's would have back in Canterlot. Unfortunately, the Hay Burger now carried the unmistakable taint of Rainbow Dash memories. The Hay Burger was where Rainbow had taken her for their third-and-a-halfth date. The concept of the half-date had confused Rainbow when Twilight informed her of it during their meal at the Hay Burger, but it made perfect sense to Twilight. Twilight had proposed the idea of dating on what Rainbow would later consider to be their first date, but since it wasn't until partway into the evening that the concept of dating had been brought up and accepted, she couldn't possibly consider that a full date. Thus, the idea of the half-date was formed. Truthfully, Twilight figured that it really should have been called a third-date since it was more like two-thirds into the evening that the two had agreed to date, but Twilight had conceded to going with the half-date name to make things less confusing, since a "third-date" referring to the fraction could easily be confused for a "third date" in reference to having gone out three times. Accepting a false statistic would have normally been nigh-impossible for Twilight, but those were the kinds of concessions that she made for Rainbow, and for those memories, the Hay Burger was out of the question.
It took a while to decide where to eat, but Twilight finally settled on the Ten Drinks Later bar and dance club. It wasn't exactly a place she frequented, but the few times she'd done so were pleasant enough. The barkeep, Mercedes, was a very nice mare—if a little crass at times—and the food, while typical bar fare, was always good. Most important, though, was the fact that she had never come here with Rainbow Dash. She wasn't sure how coming here with her had never come up, but she was currently thankful for that fact since it meant she could finally stop somewhere to eat.
Twilight glanced up at the entrance to the club as she approached it. The club did good business, but the majority of said business tended to happen at night. During the daytime, it was practically empty. Twilight knew that keeping to herself so much wasn't good for her, and she would make sure to alleviate that as soon as she was ready. Right now, a little bit of quiet time to herself was what she was sure she needed.
"Hey there!"
Twilight quickly equipped a smile as she heard another greeting come her way. It might not have been the most genuine of smiles, but anypony who was nice enough to greet her deserved a smile back. She directed her smile towards the source of the greeting: a slender yellow unicorn mare stood by the club's entrance. Twilight couldn't remember ever seeing this pony before. She was no Pinkie Pie as far as remembering details about ponies went, but she liked to think that she was knowledgeable enough on who lived in Ponyville, and she could not recall ever seeing this pony before. Upon further inspection, she was certain that she would have remembered this pony if she really had seen her in the past. She couldn't recall ever seeing a pony whose mane and tail weren't the same colors, but here was this mare with a red-and-orange mane and a blue-and-purple tail. She'd heard of heterochromia as far as eyes went, but this was a different story. Perhaps she'd have to do some studying into it when she got home from lunch. At least it would help keep her mind off of things.
"Hello," Twilight quickly blurted out, upon her own personal revelation that until that moment, the pony's greeting had gone unreturned. If the pony had noticed it, though, she certainly wasn't showing it.
"Oh wow!" The mysterious mare suddenly exclaimed. "You're Princess Twilight!" She quickly bowed, causing Twilight to let out a little sigh.
"Please, you don't have to bow," Twilight said. "And you can just call me Twilight. No title necessary." She watched as the mare quickly scrambled back to an upright position. As much as she appreciated and adored her title, she still couldn't wrap her mind around being treated differently in everyday situations because of it.
"Right!" the mare responded. "Sorry, it's just that it's not every day I see a real live princess and I thought I was supposed to...gah, I'm rambling, aren't I? Sorry. And sorry for apologizing so much. Including that one. Sorry. Chroma Splash. Is my name. That sentence didn't happen like I wanted. Sorry."
Twilight couldn't help a slight chuckle as she listened to Chroma go on, even despite her less-than-stellar mood. Something about her energetic nervousness was endearing.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Chroma Splash," Twilight responded. "And welcome to Ponyville. Unless you already lived here and I just hadn't met you yet. Then...just hello, I guess." She smiled awkwardly, mentally kicking herself over the way her own sentence crashed and burned. Her cheeks colored as she heard Chroma giggle at her statement.
"Well, hearing a princess trip over her sentences too does make me feel better about doing it," Chroma said. "Oh, and I did just move here from Canterlot, so I guess I'll take the welcome."
"Oh, you're from Canterlot?" Twilight asked, her smile growing a bit. "I'm from Canterlot too."
"Oh, I'm not from Canterlot," Chroma responded. "That's just the last place I was living before I moved here. But enough about me. Can I interest you in a painting?"
"A painting?" Twilight asked. Now that she was paying a bit more attention, she was able to notice the different canvases that were resting against the side of the club. The various canvases each depicted paintings of ponies, and Twilight found herself smiling lightly at them. Each painting had a certain quality to it, the ponies depicted managing to mix a touch of realism with a stylistic cartoony twinge. Still, though, the question posed didn't make a lot of sense to her. The ponies in the paintings seemed to all be random ponies, nopony she knew.
"Erm...well, I would, but I'm not sure what I'd do with a painting of a pony I don't know," Twilight responded. Chroma stared at her for a few seconds, then burst out laughing. Twilight stood silently as she did. Being laughed at was not improving her mood much.
"That's a good one!" Chroma said with a smile. "You're funny, Twilight. But I was asking if you wanted me to paint a portrait of you."
"Oh!" Twilight exclaimed, blushing lightly. "Right...I should have figured." She rubbed the back of her mane with a hoof. Saying something so dumb was just another thing to dampen her mood. She wanted to just disappear right then and there, but while she was quite capable of doing just that, it would have been incredibly rude to Chroma if she did so. Besides, having a portrait of herself did sound nice. Displaying it would likely be a bit awkward when company came over, but it did sound like a nice little thing to have for herself.
"Sure," Twilight finally answered. "I'd like a portrait."
"Great!" Chroma said, beaming. "Just stand right there and smile, and I'll be done as quickly as possible!" The unicorn lit her horn up, apparating an easel and blank canvas out of nowhere and pulling some paintbrushes out of somewhere, namely her nearby bag.
"Alright then," Twilight said, putting on the best smile her mood could let her muster. It was rather faked, but to tell the truth, she was feeling a little better than she had before she arrived at the club.
"Okay, just hold still," Chroma said. "This is gonna be strange but trust me here."
"Huh?" Twilight asked. Her eyes focused on s quickly-approaching paintbrush, and she flinched as it got close to her. She felt the bristles gently poke against her chest and was ready to protest, until she realized that there wasn't any paint on it. The confused look on her face soon turned to one of wonder as the dry paintbrush began to saturate with paint from out of nowhere, paint that was the exact same color as her coat.
"Impressive..." Twilight mused as she watched the paintbrush whisk back to Chroma and begin dancing on the canvas, which was currently facing away from her. She looked down to inspect her chest and make sure that the color hadn't actually been taken from it, looking relieved when she saw that her coat was just as lavender as always. She was quickly met by a series of extra paintbrushes which began to take color samples of her mane and her cutie mark, one even hovering just in front of her eye and copying its colors as well. Each paintbrush returned to Chroma in turn and attacked the canvas, impressing Twilight further at the level of control Chroma had. She had five or six paintbrushes working at once, all moving in different directions and working on different aspects of the painting. Even though she couldn't see what was being painted, she would occasionally catch sight of the ends of the ensorcelled brushes as they stroked and dabbed over the canvas. It was no fantastically amazing feat, but still required quite a bit of concentration, and Chroma was pulling it off effortlessly.
"Done!"
Twilight blinked. Had she really finished it already? She watched as Chroma set her brushes down and surrounded the canvas with her magical aura.
"Just gotta give it a quick-dry..." Chroma said, intensifying the brightness of the magical aura. After a few moments, she smiled. "And heeeere it is!" She whirled it around to show Twilight, grinning as she waited for a reaction.
Twilight stared for a long time at the painting. She was no artist; her knowledge of art was limited more to history rather than technique. But as the old proverb went, she didn't know art, but she knew what she liked, and she liked this painting quite a bit. As with the others she'd seen, it had a cartoony look to it, but at the same time, it managed to capture such a strange realism. Twilight knew how odd it was to say that something was both cartoony and realistic, but somehow it seemed fitting when looking at this painting. Chroma had spared no detail; even every eyelash was perfectly in place.
"...Do you not like it?" Chroma asked. "I could just hold onto it myself if you don't...it's alright."
Twilight realized that she had stayed silent for a bit longer than she planned. Here she was, marveling silently over this picture, but not showing a bit of reaction towards it.
"No!" Twilight blurted out. "I mean...not no! Yes! I like it a lot!" She smiles awkwardly; her favorite method in which to smile today. "It's wonderful! Probably the most impressive painting of me I've ever seen!" Twilight bit her lip as she said that last sentence. It certainly wasn't a lie, and she certainly did think it was wonderful, but it wasn't as if ponies were flocking to come paint her. In truth, this was the only painting she'd ever seen of herself. But that didn't make it any less wonderful.
"You really mean it?" Chroma asked, her ears perking up.
"I really mean it," Twilight said. "How much for it?"
"Oh! Uh, twenty bits!" Chroma stammered, seemingly overtaken with the praise.
"Nonsense," Twilight responded. "You deserve more than that for such a great painting." She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out thirty bits, passing them to Chroma. "You've got quite a talent there."
"Th...thank you so much!" Chroma exclaimed.
Twilight watched with glee at Chroma's reaction. Maybe she wasn't the happiest she could be, but that certainly didn't mean she couldn't make a nice pony like Chroma happy.
Twilight continued to watch Chroma's reaction. Normally, she might have said something like "you're welcome" at this point, but at the moment, she was a bit too transfixed for politeness. She was certain that Chroma's coat was a pale yellow when she'd first seen her. In fact, she was more than certain of it, as she'd recalled likening its color to that of the hay fries she'd intended to order from the club. Now, though, it was definitely a darker shade of yellow. The light in the area hadn't changed enough to facilitate such a change of perception...and it certainly wasn't enough to warrant the fact that it was still changing, beginning to turn a vivid orange.
Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat when she noticed Chroma's blue and purple tail begin to turn orange as well. There was absolutely no way that any amount of natural light could have caused such a visual change. Twilight watched in amazement as all of the original colors on Chroma, save for her emerald green eyes and her palette-and-brush cutie mark, were replaced with a vibrant orange. She looked up at Chroma's horn to see if it was something she was doing, but her horn remained unlit, and Chroma herself seemed to not even notice it was happening, apparently too wrapped up in the excitement of her sale. It was as if somepony had dipped her in a vat of orange paint, then applied her cutie mark over it once it dried.
"Um...Chroma?" Twilight finally managed to ask. Chroma looked back at her, all smiles.
"Yes, Twilight?" Chroma asked. It took a few seconds for her to realize the confused look in Twilight's eyes. As if she knew exactly what she was looking at, Chroma looked down at her hooves. Twilight waited for whatever major comment Chroma had to react with once she discovered her new hue.
"Whoops, orange," Chroma simply responded. "Heh, sorry about that..."
"Whoops, orange?!" Twilight asked incredulously. "You've completely changed color! I thought you'd used magic but your horn wasn't even lit! Who did this to you?"
"What?" Chroma asked. "Whoa, calm down, princess. Nopony did this to me. It was my magic."
"But...but how can that be?" Twilight asked, exasperated. "Your horn wasn't lit!" Chroma rolled her eyes a bit and let out a sigh.
"It's passive," Chroma said, now looking away from Twilight. "I can't control it. It just goes off of my emotions. When I feel certain ways, I turn certain colors. I was feeling really prideful, so I turned orange."
Twilight just stared. She'd been studying magic for years now, and in all that time, everything she'd ever read told her that magic was something that usually needed to specifically be cast. Even with magical effects she knew of whose effects were triggered by other stimuli, the magic had to be cast first before it could open up the opportunity to trigger those effects. Unicorn magic couldn't just happen on its own. And yet...apparently it had.
"You're positive you didn't cast a spell to make this happen?" Twilight asked, trying to make sense of what she just saw and heard.
"Why would I just arbitrarily turn myself orange and then pretend I didn't do it?" Chroma replied. "This is just how I've always been." Her orange began to fade gradually before Twilight's eyes, leaving her spellbound as she watched her return to the colors she'd been up until a minute ago.
"Are you done staring yet?" Chroma asked. Something about her tone was a little odd, but Twilight couldn't tell what was odd about it. Right now, all that Twilight found herself noticing was the opportunity for research and learning. This was an absolutely new form of magic to her, one that made little to no sense at all. But the great thing about things that made little to no sense was that they provided a whole new chance to learn more, and if there was one thing that Twilight liked almost as much as her friends, it was learning. She had to study this mare, and she had to begin doing so right now. She took a breath, trying to look as calm as possible, and smiled.
"Would you like to join me for lunch?"
