//------------------------------//
// The Resolution 
// Story: The Mountain Dew Experiment 
// by arglefumph 
//------------------------------//

Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash made their way through Ponyville, moving rather slowly. As they walked, they looked at the destruction left behind by Unicorn Pinkie Pie.

Entire blocks full of houses had disappeared. In their places were giant cupcakes, muffins, gumdrops and other tasty treats. Everypony they met had been Pinkiefied, just like Rainbow Dash. And for some reason, there were laughing trees which sang songs.

"I don't believe it," Twilight said. "Pinkie would never be responsible for this—would she?"

"It's scary..." Fluttershy said, shivering slightly.

"Yeah, no kidding," Spike said. He tried to cuddle up to Rarity for warmth, but Rarity didn't notice. She trotted forward suddenly, and Spike fell over. He landed face-first in the dirt.

"Hey, look at this!" Rarity said, gesturing towards the sign that she had trotted towards. It used to read "Welcome to Ponyville, Population 300". It now read "Welcome to Pinkieville, Pinkulation 300."

"Hopefully that means nopony has died," Twilight said.

"Yet," Rainbow Dash said darkly.

Spike heart beat faster, as his devious little unicorn mind worked out a scheme to attract Rarity. He spit out a mouthful of dirt, and got back up. "Did you say, d-d-d-die?" he asked, trying his hardest to stutter.

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Are you scared, Spike?"

"Uh...totally!" Spike said. "But...not because of the danger! I'm scared that I'm going to die, when I've never kissed anypony!"

He looked at Rarity hopefully. When she didn't respond, he cleared his throat.

"What?" she asked.

"Well, Rarity?" Spike asked. "I said I've never kissed a mare!"

Rarity made a rude noise. "Don't look at me!" she said, sounding very offended. "I've never kissed a mare, either! I'm astonished you would even think such a thing!"

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, a huge grin on her face.

"And don't you dare make any jokes, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity ordered. "Or I'll tell everypony what happened on your Hearts and Hooves Day date!"

Rainbow Dash closed her mouth and scowled. Fluttershy giggled politely.

"No, see, when I said I've never kissed a mare, I meant—" Spike said.

"Stop goofing around, Spike," Twilight interrupted. "I know for a fact that my mother kissed you goodnight the last time we were in Canterlot."

The other ponies laughed, while Spike blushed. "Yeah, well, moms don't count..." he muttered.

"Now, quiet, everypony," Twilight said. "We're almost there."

The ponies reached their destination: Sugarcube Corner. It had been transformed into a tall, pink-colored tower with marshmallow turrets. The doors were wide open, and everypony went inside.

Sugarcube Corner had been changed. The shop used to be cheery and cherry; now it was gloomy and grimy. The floor looked like a cracked peppermint, and in the center of the room was a big black cauldron, filled with a bubbling green liquid. A pink-colored unicorn was throwing things into the cauldron, causing minor explosions of magical dust.

"Pinkie Pie?" Twilight asked. "Is that you?"

The unicorn in the room looked up. It was indeed Pinkie Pie, and she looked frightened.

"No! Nooooo!" she said. "Stay away! Don't come any closer!"

Fluttershy took a step forward, onto the peppermint floor. "Why are—?" she began to say.

Suddenly, a pink thunderbolt the size of three Princess Celestias shot out of Pinkie Pie's forehead. It flew straight at Fluttershy, attacking the poor pegasus. For two horrifying seconds, Fluttershy's entire body was overrun with magical electricity, and she screamed before collapsing on the ground.

When the smoke cleared, Fluttershy was completely pink. She was completely unhurt, but she had been Pinkiefied, just like Rainbow Dash.

"It's the magic!" Pinkie Pie said. She sounded like she was close to crying. "At first, it was kind of fun, but now my horn is doing horrible things, and I don't know how to stop it! Help me!"

Unicorns don't normally suffer from fits of uncontrollable magic. That usually only happens to very young unicorns, who haven't learned how to properly control their magic. It can also happen during times of great emotion. Both of these situations applied to Pinkie Pie at the moment.

Twilight Sparkled paled. "What do we do?" she asked. "I can't hurt Pinkie Pie!"

"Maybe we could try a magic suppressing spell?" Rarity suggested. "The kind that parents use on their fillies?"

"Do those work on full-grown unicorns?" Twilight asked.

"I have no idea," Rarity said.

"Maybe some kind of magic-draining spell would be more appropriate here," Twilight said.

"Or we could transport her far away, until she's back to normal," Rarity suggested.

While the two unicorns debated, the other ponies tried talking to Pinkie Pie. "Turn me back to normal, right now!" Rainbow Dash ordered.

"I don't know how!" Pinkie Pie cried. "I hate magic! I don't want to be a unicorn anymore!"

Rainbow Dash tried flying at Pinkie Pie, but Pinkie's horn shot out another bolt of lightning. This one gave Rainbow Dash a mustache.

"Hey, can you teach me that spell?" Spike asked.

"Um...uh...I..." Fluttershy said, trying her hardest to sound forceful. "If you don't stop the magic, I...I...I don't know, but it won't...what are you doing, anyway?"

"What does it look like I'm doing, silly?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Spike scratched his head. It was a scene from a bad horror movie; all that was missing were plastic bats on the ceiling. Pinkie was haphazardly throwing things into her black cauldron of evil, which was spewing large amounts of nasty-looking smoke.

"It looks like you're making an evil enchantress potion," Spike said.

"She's gonna swallow us up in a big tasty brew!" Fluttershy cried.

"What? No!" Pinkie Pie said, putting out the fire under the cauldron. "I'm cooking something! I think this'll solve all my problems!"

By this time, Twilight and Rarity joined the conversation. "Cooking something?" Rarity asked. "Cooking what?"

"It looks sort of like my Mountain Dew experiment," Twilight commented.

"Exactly!" Pinkie Pie said. "The potion that turned me into a unicorn was just high-concentrated Mountain Dew, right? Well, I know all about making high concentrated things! They come up in baking all the time! I made high-concentrated sugar once, which is like putting sugar in sugar, then mixing it in sugar, so you get SUPER SUGAR, which is the same size as normal sugar but three times as sugary, and—"

"What's your point?!" Twilight Sparkle shouted, over the bubbling of Pinkie's liquid mess.

"I'm making a cauldron of high-concentrated Red Bull!" Pinkie said.  "If Mountain Dew turns you into a unicorn, Red Bull turns you into a pegasus!  And then everything will be perfect because pegasuses don't have magic!"

"That doesn't sound safe!" Twilight said. "Look, Rarity and I think that—"

"Only one way to find out if it works!" Pinkie Pie said. She dunked her head into the cauldron. There was a loud crashing sound, and for a second, it looked like Pinkie had cast another pink lightning bolt, this one at the cauldron.

Then, everything changed quickly, with a series of popping sounds.

*Pop!* Sugarcube Corners turned back to normal.

*Pop!* Rainbow Dash was unpinkiefied.

*Pop!* Pinkieshy returned to being Fluttershy.

Twilight was the first to realize what was going on. "All the magic spells she cast are being undone!"

Pinkie Pie looked up. "It worked?" she asked. "Did it work? Did it work? Did it work?"

"I think it—" Rarity said, then she stopped as she saw Pinkie Pie. "Aaaauuuuaaaa hunnnnnnn..."

"Allllliiiicooooooo nooooooo!" Rainbow Dash said.

Pinkie Pie's plan had worked, kind of. The pegasus potion had indeed given her a set of wings. But contrary to her expectations, this did not cancel out the effects of the Mountain Dew.  A pink unicorn horn remained firmly on Pinkie's head.

"She's an alicorn!" Spike gasped. "She's got wings and a horn, just like Princess Celestia!"

As everypony watched, Pinkie's body swelled in size. For a second, it looked like she was going to explode, but she simply grew four feet taller. She now towered over everypony else, and when she extended her wings to their full width, it was a fearful sight.

"Uh...Pinkie Pie?" Spike asked.

"That is not my name anymore!" Pinkie Pie announced, using the Royal Canterlot Voice that Princess Luna had used on Nightmare Night. "I am now an alicorn, which makes me Princess Pinkie Pie, the new ruler of Equestria!"

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Twilight screamed.

Pinkie Pie burst into a fit of giggles. "Gotcha!" she said in her normal voice. "Ha ha ha! I scared you!"

"WHAT?" everypony shouted.

"I was all, 'I'm a princess now,' and you were all, 'oh no, she's evil!' and it was hilarious!" Pinkie Pie said. "Best joke ever! Ha ha!"

"But...but...your uncontrollable magic!" Twilight said. "You attacked half the town!"

Pinkie Pie looked sad. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to! I guess my body's not used to Mountain Dew, so the magic went out of control.  But only unicorns have uncontrollable magic fits, and I'm an alicorn now, so everything'll be fine!"

"Er...right," Rarity said.  She didn't quite follow Pinkie's logic, but if it worked, it worked.

"Great, so what now?" Pinkie asked, bouncing up and down. "Oooo! I know! Let's go to Canterlot and play a prank on the princesses!"

"Uh...no," Twilight said. "What we're going to do now is keep a close eye on you and Spike, until the potion wears off in a couple hours."

"You mean it doesn't last forever?" Pinkie Pie asked. "That's too bad. Oh, but it's also kind of good! I can't wait to be back to normal Pinkie Pie again!"

"You and me both," Rainbow Dash muttered.

Things were relatively calm, after that. Alicorn Pinkie Pie stayed put, and she didn't try doing any magic. She did try to fly a few times, with the help of Rainbow Dash, but Twilight refused to let them do anything else.  Spike spent most of the time trying to learn how to give himself a magical mustache, but that ended up being too difficult of a spell for a beginner like him.

After two hours exactly, Spike and Pinkie Pie returned to their normal bodies.

"Woo hoo!" Spike cheered. "I have fingers again!"

"I'm back to normal!" Pinkie Pie said. "Ohmygosh, I should throw myself a Welcome Back Party!"

Twilight felt a surge of pride in her accomplishment. "It worked after all!" she said happily. "HA! I knew I didn't mess up the potion experiment! I'm a magical genius!"

"Yeah, great," Rainbow Dash said. "Now do us a favor and never mess with Mountain Dew again."

"I can still drink Mountain Dew, right?" Rarity asked.

Everypony glared at her.

"What?  It's tasty!" Rarity said.

So what happened to all our heroes after that?

Under the guidance of Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie continued the Mountain Dew experiment. They eventually developed a recipe which was strong enough to turn somepony into a unicorn, but not strong enough to cause any magical disasters.

They released it as Princess Pinkie Pie's Unicorn Potion: One Bottle Turns You Into a Unicorn for Twenty Minutes! There were pegsasus and Earth pony versions as well, and it made enough bits that Pinkie Pie could afford to move out of the Cakes' and rent her own apartment. She didn't move out, but she could afford to.

With her share of the profits, Twilight was able to afford an addition to the library, which she quickly filled with more books.

Spike never got to kiss Rarity as a unicorn, but the next time he visited Carousel Boutique, he ran into Sweetie Belle. He apologized for making her cry, and he made a bad joke about how Sweetie Belle was "such a sweetheart." Sweetie Belle slapped him for that remark, and believe it or not, she got her cutie mark in dragon taming that day.

Unfortunately for our scaly hero, Sweetie Belle thought her cutie mark was in Spike Slapping. She spent the next few weeks, slapping Spike silly. Eventually, she realized her cutie mark really meant, and when she grew up, she became a professional dragon fighter. Rarity made her an incredibly cute outfit to go with her new life skill.

Fluttershy returned to taking care of her animals. Thanks to her brief time as Pinkieshy, she decided to try feeding candy to her various animal friends. After they went wild and attacked Ponyville, she decided to put them back on their normal diet.

Princess Celestia was pleased when she heard about the Mountain Dew experiment. Afterwards, she asked Pinkie Pie to visit her in Canterlot. Together, they played the best joke on Princess Cadence. Whenever Cadence looked in her mirror, the reflection showed Alicorn Pinkie Pie. It took Cadence a half hour before she figured out what was going on.

As for everyone's favorite rancher pony, Applejack, she never appeared in this story. She was probably at Sweet Apple Acres, kicking trees or something equally exciting. We love you, Applejack!

And of course, Rainbow Dash went back to being awesome and cool. That's just the way she is.


The End