Pinkie Pie remembered the day she got her cutie mark with amazing clarity. Her life until then had been a drudgery of stone. Pushing, pulling, sliding, rolling, breaking, and polishing rocks. It was an interminable and never-ending chore, and Pa had pushed her and her sisters to work hard to ensure the success of the family business.
That all changed when she saw the sonic rainboom. That arc of color had spread across the grey skies that constantly hovered over the rock farm. It had blasted away the drab days and opened Pinkie to a world of smiles. The delight she had felt upon seeing the sonic rainboom was a feeling she wanted to share with as many ponies as possible. Nopony should be without a smile for long if she had anything to say about it.
But there should be more to it than that. The fun, the smiles, and the happiness she felt and that she shared was so fleeting and ephemeral. It disappeared within hours, or even minutes! A single wrong word could crush somepony’s smile and end their happiness. Why did it have to be that way? Wasn’t there something that could keep that happiness going? Something that could prevent the loss of the smile and help somepony be happy no matter what was happening? Colors had brought so much happiness to Pinkie’s life, and she was certain they were the answer to this conundrum as well.
So, that had brought Pinkie Pie to the smartest pony she knew: Twilight Sparkle.
“But surely there’s something you’ve heard of!” Pinkie Pie’s head bobbed up and down as she looked at the strange things laid out on Twilight’s table. She poked one of the vials and it released a cloud of bubbles that floated to the surface of the liquid. She giggled.
“I’m sorry, Pinkie. Ponies can only see the seven colors of the rainbow and the hues in-between,” Twilight said. “There are more colors, but we cannot see them, nor can we fathom what they would look like because of the limitations of our eyes.”
“But what about with… magic!” Pinkie waggled her hooves and rolled her eyes.
“Even if I were to cast a spell to allow you to see them, you wouldn’t know what you were looking at,” Twilight said. “Not to mention, ultraviolet isn’t a ‘new’ color, per se, we just can’t see it. You wanted a new color. The pony brain is limited, and has difficulty understanding the concept of a color that isn’t somehow made of colors that already exist.”
Pinkie Pie stuck out her lower lip and frowned. “But–!”
“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight cut her off and sighed. “I’m sorry, but I really can’t. It’s just not possible with the knowledge I have. Maybe there is a spell for it, but I don’t know it. Now please, I really need to get back to work.”
Pinkie Pie nodded, and without another word she left Twilight to whatever she had been doing. She wasn’t offended by the brush-off, because if Twilight had known how, she would have shared. Pinkie was just sad that Twilight didn’t know of a spell to create a new color. It didn’t seem like something that should have been so hard.
The castle receded behind her has she pranced away from it. She hummed to herself and pondered the possibilities of creating or discovering a new color. Her options were limited. She was neither a unicorn nor a pegasus, so she couldn’t use magic in her search, and she couldn’t fly as fast as Rainbow Dash and create a sonic rainboom. She would have to get very creative. For that sort of creativity, she would need some advice. Advice from the most creative pony she knew: Rarity.
Rarity understood colors and creation in a way that most ponies could only dream of. Where Pinkie was a brass band on the creative stage (noisy but fun), Rarity was an orchestra. She wove music into elaborate images that waltzed through the mind and persisted. If somepony knew how to make a color that could cause emotional staying power, Rarity might know them.
After she explained her quest, Rarity blinked at her. “You want a new color? You mean a new shade of blue or red?”
“Nonono. A new color. Brand new! Something nopony has ever seen before that isn’t part of the colors of the rainbow,” Pinkie said.
Rarity creased her eyebrows in thought as she pondered what Pinkie meant. “I don’t think such a thing exists. If it did, somepony would already have seen it.”
“But there has to be a new color! Rainbows only have seven, and that’s not enough! I need an eighth one to make ponies happy!”
“Oh, I understand what you mean now.” Rarity pulled a bolt of cloth out of a drawer and carried it over to her sewing machine. “But that’s just not possible, darling. Light doesn’t break up into more than the visible spectrum. You said you spoke to Twilight already?”
Pinkie nodded. “She told me there might be spells to see ultraviolet light, but ultraviolet light already exists. I want a brand new one! You’re fancy and creative, do you know of any spells to make one?”
Rarity shook her head. “Pinkie, our eyes can’t see anything that isn’t already there. Look.” Rarity picked up a clear crystal from a chest of gemstones. She walked over to the window where sunlight was spilling in and held the gem in the sunbeam, refracting a rainbow onto the floor of the boutique. “Light isn’t made of anything more than the colors Twilight talked about. There’s a few we can’t see, but as you said, those aren’t new, we just can’t see them. If you want a new color, you’d have to change light itself.”
Pinkie frowned. Her mane twitched, her forelock bouncing in front of her eyes as she tried to reconcile this new information. “Hmmm…”
“I’m terribly sorry, Pinkie. There isn’t anything I can do. If you want something with existing colors that really gets ponies’ attention, I’m your mare, but creating new colors is impossible,” Rarity said.
Pinkie nodded and grunted, then stepped out of the boutique, leaving Rarity to her dresses. Rarity hadn’t been able to help her, but she had given her a new pony she needed to talk to. It would be a bit of a trip, and she might have to wait, but she was one of the elements of harmony! If light needed to be changed, she would talk to the pony in charge of light: Celestia herself!
Pinkie hopped on an evening train heading to Canterlot. She had asked Spike to send a letter ahead, and Celestia had promised her a room at the castle when she arrived so she could spend the night in style and comfort. She had even offered dinner, and Pinkie had graciously accepted. She’d brought cupcakes for dessert, just to show off a little. The castle had its own bakers, but nothing could beat a gift from a friend.
When the train arrived, the sun had long since set, and a member of the royal guard was waiting for Pinkie when she bounded out of the train doors. Pinkie offered him a cupcake, but he initially refused, citing that he was at work, so she hid it in the crest of his helmet when he wasn't looking so he could find it and enjoy it later.
The guard and Pinkie Pie respectively walked and bounded up the road to the castle. Pinkie was shown into the dining hall where Celestia was waiting at a large table spread with food. She waved and motioned for the guard to bring her in, then motioned for him to leave so the two of them could dine in peace.
“Hello, Pinkie Pie. Thank you for accepting my invitation to dinner. I trust your journey wasn’t unpleasant?” Princess Celestia said.
“Nope! I always enjoy riding the train. The wind in my face when I stick my head out the window is invigorating!” Pinkie Pie put the box of cupcakes on the table and pushed them over to Celestia.
The Princess opened the box to look inside and noticed an empty space. “Why thank you, Pinkie. I see one is missing. Did you offer one to the guard?”
“I did! He said he wasn’t supposed to eat one while working, but nopony doesn’t want a free cupcake! That’s just silly!”
“Well I’m sure he’ll enjoy it when he finds it.” Princess Celestia took a bite of her salad, chewed slowly and swallowed. Then she turned to Pinkie, who was fidgeting in her seat across the table. “But cupcake delivery wasn’t why you came, was it? What can I do for you, Pinkie? Your letter left your goals a little vague.”
Pinkie perked up when the Princess skipped any more formal small talk. Her patience had a very short limit. “Okay!” She took a deep breath, and launched into her explanation: “So, when I was young I was always so very sad because work on the rock farm was really boring and my Pa and Ma only wanted us to work day in and day out and it was sooooo dull, and Maud and Limestone and Marble and Me were all serious all the time and there wasn’t any fun, but then one day there was a big explosion in the sky really far away, and I didn’t know it was from Rainbow Dash I didn’t learn that until later, but the colors of the rainbow made me suuuuuper happy and I wanted to hold a party even though I didn’t really know what a party was at the time, so now that I know how to make other ponies happy I really want to make them happi-er, and I figured if seven colors made me so happy, what would a new color do for happiness, but Rarity told me there isn’t one we can see, and even those aren’t new, so I have to change light, and so I’m here because I want you to change light to make an eighth color!” Pinkie panted at the end of her story and gulped in air.
Celestia stared at Pinkie and picked up her tea to take a sip. When she lowered the cup, she smiled at Pinkie. It was benevolent, but Pinkie could tell she wasn’t going to like the answer.
“Although I understand your desires, I cannot do as you ask.” Pinkie’s mane deflated a little at her words. “Although I have a lot of control over the sun, I did not create it. The light it sends out is not mine to change. I am sorry. Your mission is a worthy one, but I am sure you will figure out how to make ponies happy with the colors you have.”
“Awwww… and Luna can’t do anything with the moon’s light?”
Celestia smiled patiently at Pinkie. “The moon reflects others' light. It has none of its own.”
Pinkie leaned back in her chair, defeated. She couldn’t find a spell to create a new color, and she couldn’t change light to create a new color. What else was there? “What else am I supposed to do? The rainbow made me so happy when I first saw it. The happiness of a new color would have made so many ponies happy for so long.”
“Pinkie Pie, Twilight has nothing but good things to say about you anytime she writes. From what I know of you, although you can be a bit chaotic at times, your antics make ponies happy far more often than they do not. I’m sure you’ll think of something else.”
Pinkie picked at her food and frowned. She didn’t want to do something else. Colors were unique. Combinations could please ponies or disgust them, and some colors were able to encourage specific emotions. She wanted a new color.
“Although I cannot help you find this new color you seek, there are plenty of ways to use color that will make ponies happy. The bright red of a balloon or the soft pink of icing on a cupcake” —Celestia held up one of Pinkie’s cupcakes in her magic— “all do well to make ponies happy in different ways. One provides fun while another provides a delicious treat. If there’s anything I know about you, Pinkie Pie, it’s that you use colors to make ponies happy already. Even if you cannot find a new color, I’m sure you’ll think of something.” Celestia took another sip of tea with an encouraging smile for the pony across from her.
Pinkie sulked. She knew it was foalish of her, but so far she had been thwarted at every turn. She took a bite of her food while she thought long and hard about what she could do next.
While she ate, something Celestia had said kept niggling at the back of her mind. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it at first, but she was halfway through an entire rhubarb pie when she realized what it was: Celestia had called her chaotic! Chaos was the upending of the expected norms! Chaos was the answer!
Pinkie was uncharacteristically quiet for the rest of her time with Celestia. She was imagining all the possibilities asking Discord for help could result in. He, like her, was naturally chaotic to other ponies, but unlike her, he had powerful magic. He was able to conjure things that normally couldn’t exist, or that flew in the face of rational thought: Cotton candy clouds that rained chocolate milk. Checkerboard grass. Choreographed wildlife. All unnatural phenomena were run-of-the-mill for Discord. He could reverse gravity or ignore it altogether, and when it came to things behaving like they should, he was able to change the expected result. So, if light was naturally only the seven visible colors and a few invisible ones, who was to say Discord couldn’t change that as well?
Pinkie Pie was positively vibrating with excitement as she bedded down in her room at the castle that night. When she returned to Ponyville, she would talk to Fluttershy, and Fluttershy would help her get in contact with Discord. It was perfect! Pinkie went to sleep with a smile on her face.
Her return train pulled into the station with the squeal of metal. Pinkie leaned on the doors with her face against the glass until they opened, then zipped past other passengers as she raced down the road toward Fluttershy’s cottage.
The animals that were ever-present at the little cottage were milling about. Birds and butterflies fluttered about the windows perching on one branch or flower then moving to the next. Squirrels clambered up the vines and lattice on the walls of the cottage, while other animals milled about outside. Their lazy and relaxed manner seemed to indicate that they had been fed not too long ago. That would mean Fluttershy was likely at home.
Pinkie bounced around the sides of the cottage, looking to see if Fluttershy was feeding the chickens, but after a full circuit of the house, there wasn’t anypony outside. She returned to the front door and rapped on it with a hoof.
Soft hoofsteps could be heard inside the cottage. They approached the door and opened it to show Fluttershy hidden slightly behind it. When she saw it was Pinkie Pie, she smiled and stood up straighter, opening the door wider for her friend.
“Oh, hello, Pinkie Pie. What brings you here?” Fluttershy stepped to the side and motioned for Pinkie to enter.
Pinkie Pie pranced past her and into the cottage. “Good afternoon, Fluttershy! I actually came here to ask you some questions about Discord.”
“Oh?” Fluttershy shut the door and walked to the kitchen, where she started preparing some tea for her unexpected guest. “If you want to know when his birthday is, he said he doesn’t really have one, so he’ll accept whatever day you want to throw him a party.”
“No, nothing like that, though I should really throw him a birthday party sometime. I wanted to talk to him,” Pinkie said.
Fluttershy stuck her head out of the kitchen, confused. “You want to talk to him? Nopony ever wants to talk to Discord but me. What about, if I may ask?”
“Colors!” Pinkie threw her hooves into the air, tossing a small hoofful of confetti.
“Colors? What about them?”
“I want to know if he–as the spirit of chaos–knows of any colors we don’t already have, or if he could create a new one!”
“A new color?” Fluttershy’s brow furrowed as she tried to imagine one. “What would that even look like?”
“I don’t know, but it would suuuuper neato! I figure if seeing the seven colors of the rainbow made me so happy when I was a filly, a new color would make other ponies happy!”
Fluttershy brought out the tea and passed Pinkie Pie a cup. She sat in an armchair and inhaled the gentle aroma of her tea, then smiled. “Well, I don’t know anything about that, but I can send him a message. He’ll be coming for our weekly tea party too, and I can mention it then. I’m sure he’d be more than happy to talk about something so… odd.”
“Perfect! Thanks, Fluttershy. You’re a real pal!” Pinkie reached over and hugged her friend. Fluttershy had to hold both her saucer and cup above her head until Pinkie let go.
“Oof! You’re welcome, Pinkie.”
When she received the letter from Fluttershy that Discord was willing to meet, Pinkie could hardly contain her excitement. The day came, and as soon as the sun was up Pinkie was on the path to Fluttershy’s cottage.
When she arrived, she could see the animals were still ever-present; chirping, growling, and snuffling as they were wont to do. Pinkie Pie marched on up past them, and reached out a hoof to strike the door. She knocked, and after the third knock, Pinkie lowered her hoof and noticed the animal sounds were gone.
She turned away from the door and saw that the animals that had been everywhere not five seconds before, were all missing. Along with most of the ground. And the sky. It had all been replaced by a curious starscape of floating islands and shifting clouds. Her attention was drawn back to the door when she heard the latch open, and Discord appeared in the doorway. He smiled that welcoming smile that implied he was privy to a joke nopony else was, and motioned for her to step inside.
“Welcome, Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy told me you wanted to talk to me,” Discord said.
Pinkie took the change of scenery in stride. When dealing with chaos, nothing was out of bounds and it was just best to accept that. “Well hey, Discord! Fancy door you got. It looked like Fluttershy's door when I first got here!” Pinkie stepped into Discord’s home and gawped at the strange décor. A table floated past her muzzle and she giggled.
Discord shut the door behind her and watched her admiring his home. After a moment to let her look, he steepled his claw and talon together and cleared his throat. “As much as I appreciate your admiration, I’m a little excited myself to get down to business. Fluttershy told me you wanted to talk about colors.”
Pinkie Pie whirled to face Discord and put on as serious a face as she could manage. “Exactly! This is for the good of ponies everywhere! I want—” Pinkie whipped a hoof up to point at Discord’s face and waited for dramatic effect “—a new color!”
“A new color, hmm? What’s wrong with the old ones?”
“Everypony has seen them! I can put streamers up for a birthday party in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or violet or any hue in between, and everypony has seen them before!” Pinkie ranted. “Even if we used magic to allow ponies to see invisible colors, that wouldn’t be enough. I asked Twilight and Celestia about that, and those colors already exist! I want something brand new!” Pinkie stabbed a hoof at Discord for punctuation.
Discord smiled wide. “Why, you’re right! Everypony has seen them, haven’t they? And there’s only seven of them. That’s quite a drag. Why not leave them at a nice even number, like ten or fifteen?”
“Right? There should be way more! Something as awesome as colors has so much potential! We already have so many hues with seven. Think of how many we could have with fifteen?”
“Why, the possibilities might become effectively infinite! That’s a wonderful idea, Pinkie.” He curled down to bring his face closer to hers. “As it happens, I know of extra colors. I’ve even seen a few.”
“So, you do know of new colors? I knew it!” Pinkie grabbed Discord by the head and pulled his nose against hers. “What kind? What are they like?”
“Well, there’s such a thing as the color of magic in a world far from this one. They call it ‘octarine’, but that won’t do for you. Only those who use magic can see it.”
“Hmmm, yeah. That would be neat for unicorns, but other ponies get left out. That’s no good at all.”
“Oh, but don’t fret, there are others. There’s a new color inside an ark hidden in a place called Area 51. Some grave-robber-cum-archaeologist found it.” Discord scratched his chin in thought. “That one may not be what you’re looking for either. It causes an agonizing death upon those who see it.”
“Colors that cause death?” Pinkie shook her head. “I don’t want them to cause death, I want ponies who see it to be happy!”
“You’re right, of course. Happiness. Not death.” Discord tugged on his beard for a moment, then reached behind him and pulled out a notebook. “Let’s see… dismemberment. Uncontrollable plant growth. No, the cenobites only have several hundred hues of pain. The color of warm toast on a rainy day in spring while staring out the window in reflective melancholy. That doesn’t sound happy.” He flipped through a few more pages while Pinkie Pie watched, then he looked down at her and snapped the booklet shut.
“Tell you what, Pinkie. Since picking a new color out of the thousands upon thousands of different options available to me is so much trouble, how would you like to instead see your current colors in a different way?”
“A different way? Like Rarity’s designs?”
“Ohhhhohoho, no. A way I can guarantee nopony has ever imagined before.” Discord winked and smiled at her.
Pinkie put a hoof to her chin in thought. She hemmed and hawed and rolled her head about as she pondered his words. She thought to herself for a minute or so, then whipped about and pointed a hoof at him.
“Why don’t you want me to have a new color?”
He held up his hands, trying his best to look innocent. “I swear I’m not trying to stop you, I’m just saying you could have the opportunity to take a look at the colors you have. Maybe you’ll find a way to work with existing colors instead of dredging up dangerous ones. You never know, maybe you’ll be inspired.” Discord grinned at her.
“Hmmm. Okey-dokey-lokey. But this better not be a prank. I’m super serious about this!” Pinkie Pie frowned and looked askance at Discord.
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Discord made a cupcake appear and smushed it into his face for emphasis. He looked at Pinkie afterward and smiled.
“Okay. Do some chaos, Discord!”
“With utmost pleasure. You may feel a little disoriented.” Discord snapped his fingers, and Pinkie’s eyes began to ache.
At first, nothing seemed different. Pinkie blinked and squinted as her eyes hurt her. She shook her head and blinked rapidly, trying to clear the pain, but nothing worked.
“Discord, what did you do?”
“Why don’t we go back to Fluttershy’s place and have a look outside? That should answer all your questions.” Discord snapped his fingers again, and Pinkie could once again see the trees and animals that all lived around Fluttershy’s cottage.
Pinkie focused on the leaves of a nearby tree. They began as green, but as the ache in her eyes became more acute, the green started to slide off the tree. It swam away from the trunk, and coalesced into a floating sphere of color. After it had gathered together, the sphere burst, throwing green all over the landscape.
Everywhere the green landed, it sucked the color out of the objects it touched, mixing the colors together. As they changed, they grew, and floated away from the objects they came from. Then those burst and splattered everywhere. The process repeated several times, until everything on the ground was black and white and different shades of grey.
The colors mixed together until there was nothing but a morass of very dark brown. They formed a ball that eclipsed the light coming from above and began floating upward. The sky darkened above her as she followed the orb into the path of the sun, where it spread out across the sky, darkening everything, and opening a hole directly above Pinkie, allowing her to see the sun.
When that celestial orb entered her vision, everything exploded in color. Everything she had been looking at, all the colors and the blacks, whites, and greys, were all obliterated. Every color was washed away as her eyes were filled with sunlight. She lost herself in the light and felt herself movie. After she stopped, she looked around and found herself far above Equestria, looking down at a black and white landscape that stretched off in all directions.
The familiar sight of Ponyville was a black and white spot next to a black and white forest. South of them was a black and white river leading down a black and white gorge. Near that was a black and white badlands there a black and white Appleoosa had been built. She looked back north and there, built into a black and white mountain was a black and white Canterlot. Its black and white spires unimpressive against a black and white backdrop everywhere you looked.
As Pinkie watched, color began to bleed into the scene before her.
First red made its way into the landscape. The dusty plains to the south became stark and unforgiving as the pillars and sands shaded in. Yellow joined them soon after, flowers across Equestria filling the plains they lived in, bringing light and life. The golden spires of Canterlot became obvious and regal above the still black-and-white mountain it sat upon.
Then came the greens.
Forests and plains became lush and full of vitality as green infused their leaves and stalks. Colors mixed together and the brown of tree trunks could be seen as blue filled the lakes, oceans, and rivers criss-crossing the land. Crystals to the north shone with indigo light as the final colors made their way into the landscape, and violet joined it soon after, giving a rich yet dark lifeblood to the rest of the colors.
When all the colors had returned, Pinkies vision zoomed out, passing back across the spectrum as they smeared all together: Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Then everything went white. Then suddenly back to yellow.
“Pinkie Pie?” A voice said.
The yellow in front of Pinkie’s eyes waved up and down.
“Pinkie, you shouldn’t stare at the sun for so long. It’s dangerous,” Fluttershy said.
Pinkie Pie blinked, the afterimages of the sun’s light glowing in her vision. She turned to look at Fluttershy, and blinked again.
“Um… Pinkie, you have a little something… right here.” Fluttershy wiped the corner of her own mouth and pointed at Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie closed her mouth that she wasn’t aware was open, then wiped the corner of her mouth Fluttershy had indicated with a hoof. She had been drooling.
Pinkie looked around. The tree she had looked at was green, as was the grass. The creek, grass, and bridge near Fluttershy’s house were fine, and all their colors were where they should be. The dandelions were yellow, and the roses were red, and yellow and black bees buzzed from one to the next under gently scudding clouds of white. Pinkie stared. She blinked yet again, and turned her head to look at Fluttershy.
For what seemed like the first time, she really looked at Fluttershy. Her friend had a yellow coat, and her pink mane and tail draped down across it in an exquisite manner. The soft pastels of her coloring really drew out the cool blue of her eyes, and the longer Pinkie stared, the more amazing her friend’s colors looked.
Fluttershy looked concerned, but Pinkie’s gormless expression quickly gave way to a small smile which widened the longer she stared. Pinkie’s mane, which had been listless before, slowly fluffed itself up to its usual bright and poofy self along with her widening smile.
“Are you… okay, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked.
“Okay?! I’m better than okay! I’m grrrreat!”
“Oh, that’s–”
“In fact, I’m amazing! I understand now! It wasn’t the colors that were wrong, it was me! I wasn’t seeing the value of what we already have! We don’t need anything new to truly be happy, we need to understand the true value of what’s already here!” Pinkie bounced around Fluttershy, her excitement bubbling out of her in an unstoppable deluge.
“So, what–”
“I know exactly what I’m going to do! I’m going to go home, and I’m going to bake a cake! It’ll be an amazing cake! It’ll have icing, loads of icing! Icing of every color of the rainbow!” Pinkie grabbed Fluttershy’s hooves and danced in a small circle with her. “It doesn’t matter if the happiness I bring ponies disappears, because I can always make them happy again! Balloons, cupcakes, wrapping paper, streamers. Whatever it takes! That’s what makes their smiles worthwhile!” Pinkie Pie bounded down the dirt road away from Fluttershy’s cabin, shouting back excitedly. “Tell Discord I said thank youuuuuu!”
Pinkie bounded down the road, leaving her friend behind. She watched the trees, flowers, and animals pass by, and admired each and every one of them for the colors they had. They may have been the same colors they always had been, but without them, they wouldn’t be nearly as interesting as they were. Life on the rock farm had seemed grey to her when living in it, but if one life had been without color for so long, there was no sense taking the ones she had now for granted.
Now was for parties. Now was for balloons. Now was for icing. Now, was for rainbows.
The end.
