• Published 30th Mar 2013
  • 6,063 Views, 168 Comments

Book of Pink - Homeshine



For her birthday, Pinkie gives Twilight a book on how to be Pinkie. At first dubious, Twilight becomes fascinated.

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How To Not Be Constrained by Reality

"So is the library open, or what?" An upside-down Rainbow Dash abruptly broke through Twilight's morning.

"Dash?" Twilight dreamily opened her eyes wider. "Dash! Ohmygosh! What time is it?"

"I dunno," Dash shrugged, "library time?"

Twilight had NEVER slept through a library shift before; she rushed in to find she was only fifteen minutes late, thanking every star in the sky, many of which by name.

"Good thing I happened by! Must be some crazy studying." Dash's mouth pulled up into a grin around Twilight's lantern, now empty of both fireflies and nectar, having never been closed the previous night, "What book is it?"

"Um … it's my birthday present from Pinkie Pie. She … um made it herself?"

Dash looked at the book now laid out on Twilight's reading desk again, full of its neat pink script, "Oh …... kay. No offense, Twilight."

"It is … strange in places, but it's also … interesting." Twilight struggled to find the right word, again something she almost never had to do, "Actually, I'm … intrigued by it."

"Whatever. Cycling Daring Doo books." Dash pulled the previous volume out of her saddlebags, quickly replacing it with the next already laid out for her.

"All right. Happy reading." Twilight smiled.

"Same to ya!" Dash called out. "Don't fall asleep again."

"I won't!" Twilight called out to the retreating rainbow blur, before carefully turning the page and continuing on.


"It's time for a test!" the pink words read off the page. "Study hard!"

Twilight blinked. This was a textbook after all. Well, no matter. Twilight knew how to study for a test. She grabbed pen, and ink, and paper, and some flashcards, from their various places, as she scurried about the room.

Then she stopped.


What exactly would she be studying? There was nothing to calculate or memorize. No dates. No formulas. She thought about this for a minute or two, and then brought her supplies back to her desk in a heap. Well, she might as well get started, then. She was sure she'd do fine at any test Pinkie would write.

Question 1:

What can you only get when you give it away?

Twilight stopped again.

Twilight put down her quill.

This was not any kind of question she'd seen before. In fact, it was more of a riddle than a test question.
She'd hoped this test wasn't timed.
In case it was, she skipped the question and went on to the next one.

Question B:

What is the answer to this question?

"Oh, COME ON!" Twilight complained aloud, "What kind of a question is that?"

"You get infinity guesses. When you're ready to guess, come find me and tell me your answer" the book continued. And there the chapter ended.

Well, it was going to be that kind of test was it? Twilight set a determined scowl on her face.

She was set on passing it. She quickly started to pull reference works off the walls. She'd get at least one of these questions right. What IS the answer to this question? And what can you only get when you give it away?


* * *

"Are you sure the answer isn't love?"

"No, but you're super-duper-really close." Pinkie placated Twilight with a big hug, "Anyway, have a cookie for coming all the way down here."

"Thanks, Pinkie. Do you have change for a gem?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's on the house. Call it an advance on your birthday party!" Pinkie started pronking up and down. "It's going to be super fantastic! I should know!"

Twilight put a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder, "Well, I know how to repay you; I can help you make more cookies. And you can tell me all about what you have planned."

Pinkie stopped pronking and winked at that. "Now, you're starting to think like a Pink."

* * *

"First, you need the right musical number."

"I sort of imagined it would go that way," Twilight looked down at the round doughballs, wondering how music could possibly affect cooking times and temperatures, desperately trying to hit the right frame of mind.

"The music helps keep up your internal rhythm."

"Rhythm?"

Pinkie nodded, "Oh yes, everything needs to have a rhythm. It's how things get done. I'll start." And with that, she started singing a happy song involving cookies and cupcakes.

"I don't see what this has to do with the recipe."

"It's written in the recipe. It must be followed."

Twilight looked over at Pinkie's recipe book. Sure enough it was, lyrics and all. Perhaps the Book of Pink wasn't the only book Pinkie had written.

"All cookbooks need music in their recipes."

"I've read dozens of cookbooks. None of them had music in them."

Pinkie tilted her head to one side, and thought about that a second, "Why, Twi?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you read a cookbook? You can look it up later."

"So I know how everything works. If you know the recipe by heart, it works better."

"That is true..."Pinkie looked at the ceiling, "Why does it work better?"

"Because I have everything organized for it. Set up. I know what I'm doing while I'm doing it; I have an internal compass, an-"

"An internal rhythm!" Pinkie clapped her front hooves together, point made. "Without an internal rhythm I get distracted, lose focus, and wind up doing something else."

Twilight stopped and thought about that another second. "Huh. I learned something." She was actually learning new studying tips? And from Pinkie?


Together, they sang a song of cookies and cupcakes.

* * *

Twilight stopped before going into the pastry shop the next day. She knew she couldn't go in the front door. She thought for a moment. Did the building even have a back door? She went around 270 degrees and, behind some bushes, next to a garbage can, was one. Pinkie was standing there all a-beaming, declaring for all to hear, "I KNEW you'd wind up over here. You're a fast study, Twi."

Twilight grinned again, at the familiar compliment, which sounded strange coming from Pinkie Pie, but also because it included Pinkie's natural effervescence.

"I have some more guesses for your test."

"If you have more than one guess at once, they're probably not it."

"Hmmm." Twilight kept one hoof to her mouth in thought. "This is a rather difficult puzzle."

"Have you ever done a really hard maze? How do you solve it?"

"You start at the end and work back towards the beginning."

"Right. You imagine everything being perfect, then work your way back. That's how you figure out how to get there. Reality is over-rated. Instead, concentrate on having fun where you want to be, instead. If I'm making cookies, I can pretend the cookies are for Celestia. And then- OOH, I bet we can actually send her some! And they could be the most delicious thing she's ever- HANG ON" with this, Pinkie Pie suddenly ran off in a puff of dust.


She returned a moment later with a small vial. "Rarity gave this to me. It's sweetberry essence. She'd ordered it thinking it was a perfume, but it was actually to eat," Pinkie giggled. "It's in some foreign language. Poor Rarity. But anyway, we could make Celestia some sweetberry cupcakes! I bet she's never had that before."

"We? Did you want a helping hoof?"

"Wouldn't you like to make Celestia the world's best cupcakes? I know I do."

"Isn't this all a tad optimistic?"

"Nothing's gone wrong so far."

Twilight frequently felt a twinge when Celestia was concerned. She always imagined messing something up in front of her teacher. "What if the recipe went wrong? What if she got sick from that? I couldn't forgive myself."

"We can try a few first of course; the chef's taste," Pinkie winked. "And worst comes to worst, we start over with plain cupcakes. If you keep thinking about things that might stop you, you'll never get started. If you think about what keeps you going, you'll keep picking up speed, like Rainbow Dash. Internal rhythm."

"But what if she doesn't like them?"

"I'm sure she'd be polite about it. After all, one, she'd want more Twi-Pinkie cupcakes! I mean, who wouldn't? And B: Celestia isn't like that."

"That's true, Celestia isn't some evil … "

"MeanyFacepants."

Twilight facehoofed to hide her laughter. "Yes, Pinky. Meany. Face. Pants. Just the word I was looking for."

"We should add that question to the test" Pinkie was laughing now, too. "Twiley, use the word meanyfacepants in a sentence'."

"Okay. Sometimes Trixie is a meanyfacepants." Twilight was crying with laughter by this point.

"That's correct, Twi! Good job!" Pinkie was laughing her self silly, well sillier, as well.


"Everyone wants to be happy. Open the door to happiness, and they'll go right in. They aren't going to be unhappy to spite you. If they have a choice between a response that makes everyone happy and a response that makes them sad, they're always going to pick happy, so you don't need to worry about them picking sad. If you give it a chance, it almost always works. If nothing never ever had any way of getting done, nothing would ever happen at all."

Twilight stopped, suddenly getting it. It sounded very ... metaphysical. "Oh. I think I realized something."

Pinkie wrapped up Twilight in a big Pinkie-hug, "Does this mean you know the answer to my questions?"


She guessed right.

Author's Note:

Answers in two chapters. Didn't want to spoil it for those who wanted to think about them, first.