//------------------------------// // 1 A Friend in Need // Story: Of Potions and Passions Untold // by Bronyxy //------------------------------// 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. Fluttershy coughed a little weakly then turned to face her guest. “Oh hello Pinkie” she coughed again “I’m sorry; I should be up to greet you, but I’m not very well today.”  She coughed again rather feebly. “I’m being very well looked after by all the kind little woodland creatures” she looked around and saw Harry “Oh, and Harry too.”  Harry smiled, happy to have been recognised for his contribution. “I’ll go to Zecora to get you a cure” chirped Pinkie “Yes, indeedilly!” “Oh, that’s very kind“ said Fluttershy “But you don’t know what’s wrong.  And if you don’t know what’s wrong you might get the wrong cure and then Zecora might get upset, and  …”  The pegasus mare tailed off meekly. 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. “Oooohh!” exclaimed Pinkie “It’s like somepony ran out of food colouring when they baked you …” “Is it bad?” enquired Fluttershy hesitantly. “Nopey dope” chirped Pinkie “Nothing Zecora won’t be able to fix.  I bet she deals with this sort of thing all the time.” Harry wiped a relieved paw away from his face, grateful that Pinkie hadn’t inadvertently put her hoof in it.  Yet … 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. “Oh hi, Zecora!” burst the pink pony.  The shocked zebra withdrew her head suddenly from the cauldron, ears ringing and eyes rotating as her senses tried to recover their default settings. “Your approach was so silent, Pinkie dear You quite shocked me, and that’s sincere!” “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, And you say she has a sore throat. We can do something special for her, Make a brew of colour restorer.” “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, You may find you’re in for a long wait.” 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. “Oh, I’ll wait” beamed Pinkie “Can I help, huh, huh?” Already it was looking like it was going to be hard work.  Zecora braced herself and mentally parked everything else to ensure that Fluttershy’s preparation went smoothly. “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.” Zecora was distracted checking off the ingredients at the time and didn’t say anything that sounded like ‘no’, so Pinkie was good to go. 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. Tat tat tat! She knocked on the door once more and Harry let her in as the dutiful butler, a happy smile on his face when he saw the cake. “No silly” said Pinkie “This is to make Fluttershy feel all better.” Harry looked a little dejected momentarily, but soon picked up when he thought how much Fluttershy would like it. 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’. “Hey Fluttershy” called the pink earth pony “Your favourite baker’s brought you a super-duper get well soon cake, just for you!” 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, Surely you don’t already need some more?” “Nopey dope” said Pinkie “She’s got feather flu as well – got anything that can help?” “Oh poor Fluttershy how she suffers, I keep it ready with many others. Take one please for your good friend, It’s a pink one on the end.” 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. “Hey, Pinkie” she said with eye sparkling “What’s the rush?” “I’m late” she replied “Fluttershy’s ill and I’ve got to get back to work now.  Hey, tell you what though – why don’t you round up the others and pay her a visit?” 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.