Chapters Of Potions and Passions Untold
A cheerful pink equine wearing a sparkling smile bounced along the road from Sugarcube Corner, all four hooves bounding like a cross between a pogo stick and an animated beach ball fit to explode with delight. She hadn’t seen Fluttershy for a couple of days now and regretted having been too busy to stop by sooner, but had decided that today she would make up for her tardiness and be a good friend.
She followed the road out of town and when she arrived at the bridge that led to her friend’s woodland cottage, she stopped to listen to the animals, but they were uncharacteristically silent. There was always some activity around the nesting boxes; some little ones getting ready to fly or busy parents flittering around bringing food for their young ones, but today, nothing. She tilted her head to one side quizzically, then continued again with the same spring in her step as if nothing had happened, bouncing right up to the front door.
Tat tat tat! she knocked.
The door was opened in front of her by a large amiable bear that looked not only way too large to be in the house, but also unexpectedly genteel to be performing such a task. He put a claw to his lips and made a “sshhhh” sound just as Pinkie was about to burst into a loud greeting, or a song, or both. Once inside the cottage it was clear where all the animals had gone; they were all inside, each doing their bit to help the kindly pegasus who always cared for them.
Harry showed the pink guest in and tiptoed towards Fluttershy’s bedroom, Pinkie replicating perfectly every movement he made right down to the comical loping tiptoe action, some of the small rodents laughing at her performance until Angel thumped his rear foot on the floor and stared at them disapprovingly.
When they got to Fluttershy’s bedside, he held one paw to his head and made subdued groaning noises while pointing to the recumbent form with the claws on his other paw. He stayed by Fluttershy’s side to be ready to protect her from any sudden or loud actions from their notoriously random guest, eyeing her cautiously.
“Hello Fluttershy” said Pinkie with painfully suppressed ebullience.
“I’ll go to Zecora to get you a cure” chirped Pinkie “Yes, indeedilly!”
Harry pulled one of the curtains back a crack and then Pinkie saw for herself; her friend’s yellow colour had bleached to an off-white while her mane and tail were an equally pastel shade of pale pink.
Pinkie excused herself, leaving her pale friend temporarily to the care of the woodland creatures, while she bounced along to Zecora’s hut on her mission of mercy. The striped herbalist was having a busy time and when Pinkie arrived and she saw a row of potions of different colours in different containers all waiting to help out one or other of Ponyville’s residents.
Zecora was leaned into her cauldron, peering intently into an unusual looking concoction that she was stirring. Pinkie bounced closer in, keeping her hoofsteps implausibly quiet and unnoticed by the studious zebra.
“Your approach was so silent, Pinkie dear
“Oh sorry Zecora, I was hoping you could help Fluttershy. You see, she’s off colour – quite literally; like it all washed out of her – Fooommm!” she gestured with forehooves waving around in dangerous looking arcs. Zecora smiled at the pink pony’s enthusiasm, but nonetheless kept her distance during her extrovert displays:
“The colour is fading from her coat,
We can do something special for her,
“I knew you could do it!” exclaimed Pinkie beaming from ear to ear and clapping her forehooves together in glee.
“I’d do it now, but please appreciate,
Not wishing to appear rude, Zecora remained impassive on the outside, but inside her better judgement was playing through all the different types of trouble the pink tornado could get into whilst she waited.
“I like baking” said Pinkie “And Fluttershy likes cakes. Do you think I could mix this potion into a cake? She’d be sure to eat it all up then, and get well again really quickly.”
The next hour was one of the more challenging that Zecora had withstood with a very eager spectator firing a continuous barrage of questions in between picking up and prodding all manner of ingredients and artefacts. Once the remedy was complete, she gave it over to the beaming pink pony who bounded off to Sugarcube Corner to make a very special cake.
The enthusiastic pink baker set about mixing the yummiest of cakes, taking real effort to make it as tempting as possible to ensure that Fluttershy would want to finish it all. Once it went into the oven she extended her tongue to lick out the bowl, then hesitated before rolling it back up into her mouth. She had suddenly remembered that one of the ingredients was a magic potion and she had no idea what it may do to the colour of her coat, or anything else for that matter.
When it came out, Pinkie was kind of expecting the cake to look magic because of its secret ingredient, but it just looked like a regular cake, so she set about doing extra-special pink frosting to make it look super-yummy. When it was done she stood back, rested her forehooves on her hips and heaved a sigh of contentment – Fluttershy was going to love it!
Pinkie hummed a happy little song to herself as she walked the freshly made cake over to her friend’s woodland cottage, taking great care not to damage the beautiful confection.
Pinkie put the cake down and trotted off to find her friend, while a pair of weasels caught the scent of the cake and came to have a closer look. Harry saw them approaching stealthily and growled quietly, wagging a claw to and fro at them as if to say ‘no’.
Fluttershy rolled over to greet her friend and coughed more loudly than Pinkie would have thought possible for a pony so bashful as her. Immediately Pinkie could see that as well as just losing her colour, she had caught feather flu as well.
She took a theatrically extreme intake of breath and her body and set off for the door once more, her face catching it up as soon as it worked out her body was going. Moving like a pink flash, she appeared to leave a translucent ribbon of pinkiness where the indistinguishable blur had passed, and before you could say “Oatmeal? Are you Crazy?” she was back at Zecora’s hut.
Busy making a complex concoction, and determined not to be distracted from her task, she spoke without taking her eye off the cauldron:
“I hear those pink hoofsteps back at my door,
“Nopey dope” said Pinkie “She’s got feather flu as well – got anything that can help?”
“Oh poor Fluttershy how she suffers,
Take one please for your good friend,
Still not tearing herself away from what she was doing, she waved a hoof in the general direction of a row of earthenware bottles on the side. Pinkie thanked her politely then went to the row of pre-prepared medicines and gently picked up a bottle, taking a peek inside. It was difficult to tell the colour because the bottle was dark and opaque, but it looked close enough to what Zecora had described.
Pinkie hadn’t much time left to spend with her friend now; she had managed to spare what she could from her busy schedule, but rather than spend it with her ailing friend, she had been very helpful in getting her medicines instead. At this, she allowed herself to feel happy, secure in the knowledge that she had been a true friend.
With no time to lose, she ran back to the woodland cottage and knocked on the door once more. Once more being greeted by a big friendly bear who showed her in. She was going to tell Fluttershy what she had done, but Harry put a claw to his lips, a quick peek showing that she was asleep. Normally Pinkie would have felt inclined to wait for her friend, but time was tight today, so she left the potion with Harry and made her excuses and tiptoed out. Harry put the potion down with the cake and then went to continue his devoted vigil at Fluttershy’s bedside.
The pink tornado swept back into Ponyville so fast that the sudden movement caused a snoozing cyan pegasus to catch the rapid movement out of a bleary half-awake eye. Suddenly, she perked herself up and lifted off from her nap cloud to go check it out, leaving a rainbow trail behind her. She intercepted Pinkie and flew upside down in front of her.
Rainbow Dash pulled aside to let Pinkie finish her journey without delaying her any further, and then set about going round to tell the others and get them together as soon as she could. Fortunately, they were all in a position where they could stop whatever they were doing quite quickly, and shortly the four of them made their way the outskirts of Ponyville, Applejack walking with Rarity while Rainbow Dash and Twilight flew along side by side at the same pace, all very easy in each other’s company.
Twilight challenged her flying instructor to a race over the last few yards to see who would get to the door of the woodland cottage first, but called it very late. Both giggled good naturedly at Twilight’s little cheat and Rainbow deferred to her the honour of knocking at the door as her prize, gently covering the lilac hoof with her own and sharing a lingering look.
After a brief pause, Harry the butler showed them in and directed them in to see Fluttershy who was now propped up in bed. All the woodland creatures were delighted that Fluttershy’s friends had turned up to see her and set about making them feel welcome. Harry meanwhile, who had been up for a long time taking care of Fluttershy, now took this as his cue for a brief lie down himself as he knew she would be in good hooves.
The woodland creatures were all very excited and extended the best welcome they could by cutting some cake for everypony and filling glasses with an exciting new purple coloured drink they had found next to the cake. They scurried in delivering plates and glasses for the five ponies present, taking great care not to drop or spill anything.
Fluttershy was delighted to see her friends and they all shared the treats that the woodland creatures had provided. The friends had a lovely time, laughing, joking and playing a few games, but before long, the patient was tired and bade them all farewell, thanking them for their visit. The woodland creatures left her alone too, and also Harry who had been working so hard and needed to catch up on his rest as well.
Of Potions and Passions Untold
2 Unintended Consequences
The next morning, Applejack rose early as farm ponies do, and was surprised to see that her hooves had turned white and the tip of her tail looked as if it had been dip-dyed purple. She looked at what she saw, unable to fathom quite why her trademark orange coat and blonde tail were not as they had been last night. Now, it was true to say that she and Rarity had, well, buried their differences following Twilight’s sleepover and were now getting on a whole lot better than they ever had before.
“Well, white coat and purple sure go well on Rarity” she said to herself “But on me it just looks plain creepy , if you ask me.”
Next up was the immaculate Rarity. She stepped daintily out of bed and trotted the few steps to her mirror to see how she had fared following the night’s sleep. She stopped suddenly, pupils turning to pinpricks. She lifted a forehoof and looked at it closely. It was orange. It shouldn’t be orange; it was white yesterday, she would swear to it. Each of the hooves was the same. Orange. She made as if to scream, then stopped herself abruptly. She didn’t want anypony coming in and finding her like this. No, that would never do.
Rarity focused and her horn started to glow as she cast the vanishment spell that she hadn’t used since her school days. It had been useful then because she had received her cutie mark before her friends, and to avoid jealousy she had learned this spell to pretend she was a blank flank until her friends caught up with her. With a little bit of focusing and a bit of effort she felt the familiar tingling feeling wash over her as her colour returned to normal, but her cutie mark also vanished. Tutting to herself, she set about painting replacement cutie marks on her flanks with makeup, and as she was bent around doing this she caught sight of the blonde tips to her tail. Would her troubles ever end?
She couldn’t possibly re-apply her cutie marks if her tail needed dying, so she mixed up some mane and tail dye and then soaked her tail, cursing every minute this process was delaying her. Downstairs, the smell of her sister’s cooking was wafting up to assault her nostrils, not the aroma of exquisite cordon bleu refinement but the dark clouds of burnt offerings. She was supposed to have been down sooner and prepared breakfast for them both, but resolving these blemishes had taken far longer than she had anticipated and in response, her eye started to twitch.
She knew she couldn’t leave her tail part way through its colouring process, so she had to grit her teeth and pray that she would still have a kitchen left when Sweetie Belle had finished cremating her groceries. Finally the dye had taken and she was able to condition and dry her tail, but re-applying the cutie marks would have wait as she ran downstairs before the boutique burned down.
Rarity’s eye twitched again as she opened all the windows to let the smoke out. Then she looked at the charcoaled morsels that had once been food, smoking mournfully on her plate and really tried to keep her temper under control. This was not shaping up to be a good day.
Quietly she got up from table, delicately tucked her chair away, raised her head high, tiptoed elegantly back upstairs, entered her bedroom, closed the door and threw herself onto her bed for a good cry. The boutique would be late opening today.
Twilight Sparkle awoke and trotted down to do breakfast for her and Spike. Books were everywhere; last night’s study binge had left its usual trail of chaos throughout the library and Spike hadn’t yet got up to put things straight.
She set about cracking the eggs and then suddenly noticed that her hooves had turned a light shade of blue, very reminiscent of a certain pegasus marefriend. She stared open-mouthed at her discovery.
Twilight was mortified.
Rainbow Dash was late up as usual. She went through her rather casual morning routine and flew off to perform as Ponyville’s weather pony with the minimum of delay. Once she had finished her duties she did some flying practice and then landed in the village to see what was going down. She saw a purple and white striped helmet crouched low over a set of handlebars kicking up a trail of dust and gave a little smile; her protégé was clearly just as keen as her to be noticed for her speedy skills.lilac ! She settled for a rather unexpectedly subdued hug instead and then pulled away to check out her other hooves. Sure enough, they were all lilac too!
Rainbow gave an indecipherable excuse and shot off to the privacy of her home where she could take time to check herself over. Sure enough, her cyan hooves were now lilac and the tip of her tail had changed to purple and pink. She tried to wash it off, but no chance; in fact it even looked like it was growing more pronounced. In desperation, she dug out some rainbow coloured leg warmers and put them on; that would have to do for now.
Twilight emerged from her bedroom wearing spats over her hooves. They were smart, but a little old fashioned. When Spike saw her, he collapsed in a fit of laughter.them ?” he asked in between giggles.
Twilight arrived at Zecora’s hut to be greeted by the friendly zebra.
“Hello Twilight, please do tell,
“It’s not her I’ve come about Zecora; it’s this” said Twilight removing one of her spats and also showing the tips of her tail.
“Oh my, what’s this I’ve spied?
Zecora quickly checked her inventory of potions and shook her head.
“Oh that Pinkie, what has she done?
I should have watched her, I am remiss;that end not from this .
Tell me straight, if you dare,
Twilight blushed and looked at the ground self-consciously before nodding.
“I thought as much, for the potion that’s gone
If it’s been mixed with the coat restorer,
“What?” Twilight cried.
“The colour will continue to grow
It starts at the hooves then up the legs,
Only once fully covered will it fade
“Oh no!” gasped Twilight as she visibly sagged “Then it could be the same for Rainbow too! We’re both going to change colour completely before we return to normal?”
“How long does the whole process take” she asked, her voice getting more shrill.
“It’s not exact, but my best guess for you:
“Is there anything we can do?” she exclaimed, a note of desperation in her voice.
A thought crossed her mind in a flash; what about Applejack and Rarity – could they be as romantically involved like she was with Rainbow?
She flew around trying to see if her marefriend was taking a nap on a cloud as she usually did at this time of day, but upon finding nothing, she went round to her cloud house instead. She knocked, but there was no answer, so she used the key that Rainbow had given her and let herself in.
Twilight explained and Rainbow face hoofed at the prospect that she would lose her trademark cyan coat and rainbow mane and tail for a short period, but was reassured that it would come back afterwards.
Twilight realised that they had not been the only ponies with Fluttershy when the mix-up happened, so Rainbow volunteered to explain to Applejack whilst Twilight would go to Rarity and they would meet up at Sweet Apple Acres.
Of Potions and Passions Untold
3 Friends are Always There for You
Her especially busy day behind her, Pinkie set off to spend some quality time with Fluttershy. Harry let her in as before and showed her through to her pegasus friend.
Pinkie froze.
“Just to be sure” she said hesitantly “You mean a pink frosted cake and pink drinks?”
Pinkie’s worst fears hit home.
“But the drinks were purple, not pink” corrected the pegasus “It was all very nice.”
Slowly, Pinkie got to her hooves, not quite sure what to do and walked slowly out to find the butler.
Following Twilight’s visit earlier, Zecora had been expecting Pinkie and sure enough, here she was. Pinkie poured out her tale of misunderstanding and asked Zecora what would happen and more importantly, what she could do.
“Pinkie my dear, in all your commotion,
It was not feather flu cure that you took,
You worked for the best and tried so hard,
Twilight has seen me an explained what’s done;
Rainbow swooped over Sweet Apple Acres and saw a particularly muddy pony in a Stetson hat and flew upside down in front of her.
At this the earth pony stopped in her tracks.
“Now, just what in the hay are you talkin’ about?”
Twilight opened the door to the Carousel Boutique triggering a bell on a spring and Sweetie Belle trotted out happily, summoned by the delicate tinkling sound ringing throughout the shop.
Rarity was sat at a sewing machine, eye trembling with obvious tension.Every time !”
Rarity broke down in tears alarmingly in front of Twilight who had never seen her friend so down.
Twilight finally coaxed Rarity out into public for an important meeting with a very special somepony, but she had still put on boots to cover her hooves. She walked a little self-consciously with Twilight towards Sweet Apple Acres, deftly swishing her tail away from anypony she saw to avoid casual observation and awkward comment.
When they arrived, they could see Rainbow Dash joking with what looked like an animated mud monster with a Stetson hat. Rarity gasped at the state Applejack was in, but overcame her usual reticence of dirty things once she realised that it was nothing more than a defence mechanism not dissimilar to her own. In fact it was probably a lot less stressful than constantly recasting the vanishment spell, re-dying her tail and re-applying her cutie marks on a regular basis. She sighed in defeat.
“Nice leg warmers Rainbow Dash” said Rarity with the beginnings of a smile starting to cross her face.
“Rainbow and I have talked this through” announced Twilight “Whilst it is not the way we would have chosen to announce our love to Equestria, we have decided to roll with it and wear each other’s colours with pride. I know you two have been keeping your love more discrete than us, and so it’s going to be a lot harder for you, but it is an approach you may want to consider. Please know that whichever way you choose to go, Rainbow Dash and I will support you fully.”
“Applejack” said Rarity flashing her beautiful big blue eyes “I want you to know that I really love you.”
“That was a brave thing you did” said Twilight.
A pink blur suddenly materialised next to them. Pinkie stopped dead, a trail of dust settling behind her, her tongue hanging out, panting.
“Don’t worry Pinkie” reassured Twilight “We know what happened and we don’t blame you.”
Just then, Applejack walked over, a little self-conscious as this was the first time she had shown off her new colours to anypony.
“Come on girls” said Twilight, taking command “There’s one pony we haven’t checked in with this morning. Let’s go and see how Fluttershy is.”
With each step taken, the friends became less embarrassed about their new colours and relaxed in each other’s company, the two couples now very definitely displaying their affection more openly. Pinkie meanwhile was happily bouncing along behind them, relieved that things had worked out so well and that everypony still loved her.
When they arrived at the woodland cottage, Rainbow knocked at the door with her lilac hoof and Twilight covered it with her cyan hoof, both gently turning to hold hooves and share a quick kiss before Harry opened the door to them.
He gave them a slightly quizzical look then showed then through.
There was no further response, so the friends all entered the rather dark bedroom to find their friend tucked up in bed, a duvet tightly up round her neck.
Rainbow Dash caught sight of Fluttershy’s pale yellow leg poking out from the duvet and noticing that the colour had changed to light green at the hoof, eye-motioned towards the others.
Twilight seated herself, making herself comfortable “Fluttershy, have we got a story for you …”
