It smells like turpentine and tastes like apple juice
It had been a nightmare to install a telephone line inside a castle made out of crystal, but Starlight was glad for it as she dialed the number that was only reserved for emergencies.
It only took three rings for some creature to answer. “Starlight, what’s happening?”
“Spike!” Starlight yelped, glancing up and down the hallway guiltily. “Is Twilight there?”
“She’s in a meeting with the Saddle-Arabian dignitaries, can't exactly barge in at the moment,” he said quickly, his tone serious. “Unless it’s an emergency.”
“It is an emergency, just…not the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it kind of emergency, b-but still a big deal…!”
“…With you, everything is a big deal.”
“Spike, not helping,” Starlight rebuked and stepped closer to the receiver, panic seeping into her voice. “Tell me, do you know anything about elixirs?”
She heard some rustling in the background and a quiet sigh, most likely settling in after hearing the dread in her tone. “A little bit, used to help Moondancer and Twilight with them from time to time, why?”
“Well, I tried my hoof in brewing one of them—”
“Sweet Celestia, who’s at the hospital right now?”
“No one! I stayed away from the poisons and the really dangerous ones!”
“Ok then, what did you brew?” Starlight was silent long enough for him to wonder if she had hanged up. “Hey, are you there?”
“…Potio amor vitae.”
There was a pause on his side. His old ponish was a little rusty, but he helped Twilight through many nights of research to piece together a rough translation in his head. “Potio is potion…vitae means life, I think, and amor…Starlight!”—she flinched at his tone— “You made a love potion!?”
“It was one of the most benign elixirs in there!” She said and with that, her explanation tumbled out like a landslide. “An ex-schoolmate of Sunburst’s sent him this book, saying she needed help translating it, but since he’s so busy I offered to translate it for him instead! I made it just to see if my translation was correct—and before you accuse me, I wasn’t planning on giving it to any creature, I swear! I put the potion in a pitcher since I ran out of bottles and left it on the library table because I wanted to fetch a couple of books to compare the results, but when I got back Sunburst had drunk it all and said that it was good and asked me what it was! I freaked out and ran and now he will fall in love with me and this will ruin my friendship with him and when I give him the antidote, he will hate me forever and he will move out and quit and I will have to look for another vice-headmare and—!”
“Starlight!”
“Sorry,” she breathed, her stomach squirming with dread. “I just, I don’t know what to do or how he will react, Spike I’m scared!”
“Ok, just breathe and let’s think rationally,” Spike said and he coached her through some breathing exercises before he continued. “Alright, tell me about the potion so I can look for it in the library and search for an antidote.”
“It’s a really strong one, supposedly an ‘elixir of everlasting love’,” Starlight scoffed slightly at the pretentious title. “It smelled like turpentine when I was brewing it, and Trixie claimed it smelled like fabric softener, I thought the smell alone would deter anyone from drinking it.”
“But shouldn’t it smell good? Being a love potion and all?”
“This elixir is love in its purest form, hard to stomach for most.” Starlight explained. “Think of it like a spice—no, more like an ingredient for a cocktail, something that on its own it doesn’t taste very good. Like, you could drink scotch and whisky with nothing else but unless you got a tolerance for them, you would throw it up, right? That’s why you mix it with other things to make it easier to swallow.”
“Alright, so it’s a really strong spice,” she heard him mumbled alongside the faint scratching of a quill against paper. “Then why did it smell so different to you and Trixie?”
“Because since I brew it, the potion is pure love directed at me,” Starlight sighed. “Every creature feels differently towards someone, that’s why you have to hide it in foods or drinks, you never know how it will smell or taste to them.”
There was a pause on his side and Starlight could practically hear his eyebrow raised in skepticism. “Starlight, did you hear what you just said? If he drank it without complaint, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind, look,” Spike said quickly, cutting her off, “unless he starts puking and convulsing all over the place, I don’t think he will be mad at you, it was an honest mistake. Besides, he’s a wizard, he would totally understand that these things happen and won’t hate you for it.” His chuckle tumbled through the wire. “I mean, he was pretty impressed when you told him you traveled through time.”
A light smile curled on her lips at the memory. “But he was pretty miffed that time I turned us into foals…”
“Does he hold it against you?”
“No, but—”
“Then I don’t see why this is any different,” Spike said resolutely. “I’ll look for an antidote and send it to you—though I honestly don’t think you will need it—in the meantime, tell him what happened and keep an eye on him just in case, if things go bad, take him to the hospital and call me.”
Starlight nodded and swallowed nervously. “Ok, I’ll call you later, thanks.”
“Only if it’s an—” Starlight hanged up, feeling jittery and anxious all over as she made her way to the library.
There was just one detail she didn’t mention to Spike—a little fact about herself that she hadn’t told anyone, not even Trixie or Maud or Twilight knew, and it made this whole mess even worse for her.
She really, really like Sunburst, more than just a friend, and she was torn up inside about this.
On the one hoof, a part of her would love it if he started reciting love sonnets and declaring his everlasting love for her, it was just something a girl dreams of when they’re in love. But on the other, the side of her that was the loudest and the most negative, told her that it wouldn’t matter because those words wouldn’t be coming from him, but from the effects of a love potion. She might as well brainwash him into loving her for all the good those saccharine words would do.
She inched slowly towards the library doors. Thankfully they were partly open, giving her a chance to see what waited for her on the other side. Her ears perked at the sound of smooth rock-and-roll playing from the record player, and she easily found Sunburst where she left him, sitting on the table surrounded by books and parchments, his head bobbing to the music, looking…calm, content, like himself.
Starlight looked away, blinked, rubbed her eyes, blinked one more time, and looked again.
The music kept playing and Sunburst switched books, humming along to the lyrics.
As relieved as she was that her friend wasn’t hurling and convulsing on the carpet, or chasing her down like a mad-pony while screaming her name, she couldn’t help but stare with utter confusion. She wasn’t one to brag, but her spell work had always been impeccable—she knew that she hadn’t made a mistake while brewing the love potion, and with the amount he drank he should have felt the effects by now. She looked behind him, where her table was, still covered with her notes and books and the empty pitcher, she needed to check them over and find an answer.
The door didn’t creak as she pushed it open, a spell of binding on the back of her mind just in case seeing her triggered the enchantments. She cleared her throat loudly to be heard over the music.
“Hey, Sunburst,” Starlight called out nervously. “How are you?”
Sunburst looked up. Their eyes met and she tensed, waiting for a sheen of obsession to cover his eyes before he decided to jump her, and Starlight had half a mind to make a dive for the door when he beamed and spoke. “Pretty good, actually, I just made a huge breakthrough in this history paper I’m working on! With this, I’m going to blow away all those old croons in the Historic Society this weekend.”
“Okay,” Starlight said, taking another tentative step towards him, more confused than warry. “I’m just gonna…gather my things and…”
She pointed at the table behind him, towards the empty jug. When Sunburst saw it, his ears lowered with shame and he scratched the back of his neck guiltily.
“Oh, sorry about that, I just meant to take a sip, but it was just so good that once I started, I couldn’t stop!” He grinned sheepishly. “You should patent it and sell it. It would be a hit!”
“Ha-ha, yeah…” She laughed awkwardly; she would keep his suggestion in mind if she ever wanted to change her residence from a sparkling castle to a moldy cell. “Just out of curiosity, what did it taste like to you?”
“It tasted like…” Sunburst frowned pensively at the bookshelves that lined the walls. “Well, at first I thought it was pomegranate juice, it smelled strongly of it when I walked in, but when I drank it, it tasted kind of…fruity, I guess?”
“Fruity?”
“Yeah, like the apple juice we used to drink as foals, or the apple pie we split between us last thursday, and the candy apples we ate during the fair…” He trailed off with a faraway look on his face, but then the record player switched to a more upbeat song, shaking him out of his stupor. “W-What I’m saying is that it tasted like apple juice.”
Starlight nodded, letting him hide in his books and papers again while Starlight went for her notes. Pomegranate and apple juice? She didn’t even know he liked those fruits, and why would the love potion evoke those aromas and flavors for him? She guessed that fruit juice would be easier to swallow than turpentine and fabric softener, but why would it smell good to him? How could he tolerate something so strong…?
Tolerate.
Unless you got a tolerance for them, you would throw it up, right?
Starlight gasped, loud enough for Sunburst to jump in his chair and turn around to check on her. “Wow, what happened—!”
“Sunburst!” Starlight whirled around, leaning over with a wide grin on her face. “You’re in love with me!”
His glasses slid down his snout and fell to his lap, but he was too busy gaping at her fuzzy image to notice. “Huh.”
“You’re in love with me,” she says with more confidence than she thinks she ever said anything and the rest comes out in the rush. “You downed an entire jug of love potion and yet you’re not acting any different! And I know for a fact that my translation was accurate and I followed the directions to a tee, and if the potion smelled and tasted good to you it means you were in love with me before you drank it!”
Sunburst picked his glasses and slipped them on, but his gaping wasn’t any less intense. “Wait—that was a love potion!?”
“Yes!” Starlight nodded. “And I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have left something like that lying around, and I wasn’t going to try it on anyone or anything, heck, Discord would have mounted my head on the wall if I touched any of Fluttershy’s animals.” She slumped on her chair with a sigh. “I totally understand if you’re mad at me though, it was stupid of my part to leave it out in the open, I’m really, really sorry.”
“I…well, if there’s anyone to blame it’s me, I shouldn’t be drinking things that I find lying around.” Sunburst cleared his throat, blushing a little. “And, yeah, I do like you Starlight, a lot.”
“…Oh.”
His blush increased and he looked down at his hooves. “Unless you don’t, which is perfectly alright! I understand if you just want to remain friends—”
“No!” Starlight yelped, her own face heating up to a shade of red that matched his own. “I really like you Sunburst, and if you want to be more than friends…then I’m willing to try.”
His blush didn’t lessen, but his grin eased the last bit of her anxiety and Starlight smiled back.
“Then, would you like to come with me to the Historic Society meeting this weekend?” He continued quickly before she could protest. “It’s taking place at a really nice hotel, after the meeting we can go to the restaurant for dinner and then we can do whatever you want.”
“Is this a spur-of-the-moment decision, or were you planning on this?”
“Been planning for it for weeks actually,” Sunburst laughed nervously. “I wanted to use the nice scenery to tell you, to make it special, but I guess the library will have to do.”
A bright spark of dragon flame appeared before Starlight and she reached out her hoof to catch a scroll, she opened it and read the contents quickly before she looked at Sunburst. “It’s the antidote for the love potion,” she looked at him with concern. “Are you sure you’re feeling alright? I could make it for you if you want.”
“I don’t need it,” Sunburst said, putting his hoof over hers and pushed the scroll down. “I never felt better.”
Author's Note
Happy (belated) Starlight Glimmer day! I wrote this quickly and yet didn't make it in time for the holiday 
, so if it seems a little rush, that's the reason. I hope you enjoyed it though!
