Alchemy is Also Magic

And so here they were, laughing in front of their burning home. All very much happy to see each other. The house, very much not a house anymore, crumbled as more and more fire danced about it. As the fire consumed more of the family's belongings, they laughed more and more. All the things in the house didn't matter right now, and probably never did. The 'valuable' belongings were broken, cheap, and easily replaceable. There however was one thing of importance. A painting, not the canvas it was on, but the paint itself. Fire danced about in a mix of herbs and fruits. It melted their dried form and liquified into a pool of multicolored paint.

"Dad, your painting! It's still in the house. Are you sad about that?" Ridgeline asked now that he had calmed down.

"It was a place that I've never seen. Only fitting that nopony else sees it. Out of my imagination, and back to oblivion. I'm alright with that." Cliff was having one of his 'righteous' moments again. Ridgeline would pay utmost attention during these phases, and did so then. "However, I'll need a glass jar. Care to help me look for one son? Silksand, I think it's time to show Ridgeline a little trick I picked up when traveling..."

Silksand nodded and started rolling again, minding the smoke that was mere inches above their heads. A few moments later Ridgeline had a jar pressed tightly against his chest with his two front hooves and rolled in the direction of Cliff. He was laying down like a dog on watch, staring with wonderous eyes into the fire that had consumed his grey dusty prison. His focus was broken when a rolling Ridgeline had crashed into him, sending them both down a hill. "Watch it Ridgeline! We need the jar in pristine condition for this to work."

"Dad, just what is it that we are going to do with this jar?" Asked a curious Ridgeline.

"Well... when the fires die down to a safe amount, we're going to take a look back into the house. I have a feeling that this may work, though I've been wrong before."

"Wrong about what?" Ridgeline was a small colt. He didn't get all the reassuring jokes thrown about by parents. So he did what every other small pony would do. He questioned everything.

"Never mind that, I think the fire is beginning to die down. Yup it certainly is."

It was a roaring flame of chaos and hardly recognizable as anything more than 'on fire'.

A small group of ponies came up from a hill then, and Ridgeline noticed a few of them as familiar. "Ms. Clover! It's great to see you! Are there any houses that need remade?" Asked Ridgeline before Silksand could turn a cheerful smile at their company.

"Yes, as a matter of fact there is Ridgeline. Yours." Everypony laughed and the newest additions to the party were choking on the smoke, but then they decided to join the crazy rolling ponies. "Well, it's wonderful to see you are all alive and well. When the fires are down, we'll come back and help you rebuild."

"Thank you very much for the assistance Ms. Clover, but I think we can have a house set up before next morning. We are, after all, earth ponies." Silksand was happy to see a positive response from Ridgeline's teacher's face.

So then as miraculously as they came, the party of helpful ponies left. They rolled down the hill thinking about how silly they looked, and got up as soon as they were out of the smoke. The burning house did start to die down by then though, and Cliff made a smirk of 'I told you so!" at Ridgeline. The fire didn't last long after that. By the time the sun set, behind clouds, what remained at the top of the hill was three ponies, ash, and something else entirely.

"Okay, time do see if my little plan will work. Lets just look over here and... aha!" Cliff noticed immediately a small pool of paint that was spared the fate of flame. As the fire burned up, the paint spilled down.

"I've waited so long to do this..." Cliff smirked as he opened the jar, and scooped a large hoof-full of paint into it. Then, plucking hairs from his mane, he looked at the two other ponies and gave them a look of 'What you lookin at?'.

"What you lookin at?"

"You." Ridgeline said, again not getting the cliche jokes of older ponies and just resorting to basic logic.

"Well... Okay then!" Cliff wasn't normally sneaky, but somehow he was hiding in plain sight. He trotted over and plucked quite a few hairs from Ridgeline's mane. they were brown and almost indistinguishable from Cliff's.

"Ow! Don't do that!"

"Silksand dear?" Cliff looked over at his wife who met him with a gaze of 'Why do I put up with you?'.

"Because you love me dear." Silksand wasn't shocked that Cliff had just read her mind, but did pluck some hairs of her own. They were a light grey. Not from again, but just her natural mane color.

"Alright. Now I need... let's say... some leaves! Yeah, this stuff needs to be a little greener."

Three leaves later and the bottle was horrible looking. It had paint, hair, and leaves in it. Truly nopony would ever take just one glance at this peculiar thing of 'art'. But with every jar of leaves, paint, and hairs, Cliff did what should be done. He threw it, sealed, into a nearby fire. The glass bottle burst to colors and rumbled to life as soon as it touched fire. It shot out light of brilliant color, rainbows and white light, but maybe too much green.

"Darn, I think I added too many leaves, or maybe I shouldn't have even added one! Oh well, it seems non-lethal so lets take a gander!" Cliff was happy to see that the bottle didn't simply explode and leave him to be embarrassed with his 'idea' gone to waste.

"Excuse me dad, but... what is that?" Ridgeline's eyes were completely fixated on the, now not too ugly, bottle. "I mean yeah I know that it is paint, hair, and leaves... maybe too many leaves... but it looks... magical."

Cliff raised a brow to his son's wild theory. How did he guess that this is magical? With a grin, Cliff hoofed the bottle over to Ridgeline and said two very unexpected words. Two words that Ridgeline had never wanted to hear when anywhere near this bottle of liquified stuff.

"Drink it."

"Dad! I don't wanna! It looks gross and it's glowing!" Ridgeline was really determined that this would kill him if he drank it. Cliff just looked at Ridgeline and grinned.

"Well, if you wont drink that, then I'll make us up a batch of wheat noodles!" Everypony cringed after hearing those words in the same sentence. Cliff may have been a good painter, but not every artist is great at every art. Cliff was especially terrible at noodles, and wheat simply couldn't be made into anything noodly.

"Alright you win dad, but will this kill me if I drink it? Because if it does, I'll kill you."

Cliff shrugged his shoulders, very hard to do for a pony, and gave a grin. "Great to see you getting better at jokes kiddo, but honestly, it won't kill you."

Ridgeline looked at the liquid. It seemed to look back at him. It was glowing and swirling despite any movement on Ridgeline's part. It smelled like clean air mixed with mint. Giving it a shake, Ridgeline noted that it wasn't as viscous as paint should be, let alone paint with leaves and hair in it, which brought up another point. The hair and leaves were gone, probably melted or burned in the heat, but Ridgeline felt in his mind that they were still in the bottle, in the liquid. Giving it one final look of disgust, Ridgeline slurped it down. It tasted awful. Despite it's refreshing smell, it tasted like rocks, bitter flowers, old cheese, and way way too much green.

"Way too much green dad."

"Really? I didn't think you would be able taste color son. So here's the bigger question. How do you feel?"