//------------------------------// // Pink is not Limited to One Vessel // Story: Book of Pink // by Homeshine //------------------------------// "And then you need to sing a song!" Pinkie brightly carried on. There was no help for it; Bodivander and Twilight combined simply could not write as fast as Pinkie could speak. "I'm sorry, Pinkie. Usually, I'd be assisted by Spike. What was that, again?" "I've never been in a cult, before," Pinkie turned to Bodivander. "Do you have a cult song?" "Not … per se." "I can write you one! Let's see:" Pinkie started singing "Oh... the … cult! It's the cultiest cult! it was so gloomy in here! But then Pinkie came along and …" "No, that's quite fine, thank you." "Okay!" Pinkie sprightly said, continuing to dole out pink party decorations from her saddlebags, which clashed terribly with the the somber decor of the rest of the austere reading room. Rarity had already voiced her horrification at this. "And Rarity, if this spider dies, don't tell Fluttershy." Twilight said. "My lips are sealed." They'd already caught a spider, and placed it in a small, clear bottle, snatched up from one of the surrounding magical apparatus that had been obviously hastily installed in the converted reading room, making up what was now the alicorn research lab, and, more recently, Pinkie's Party Room. "I don't like the eeeeevil way that spider looks at us," Pinkie stood level and glared menacingly at the spider. The spider did not respond in any way to this. "I just …" Bodivander trailed off. "I simply do not see what the purpose is in any of this." "We need to get Pinkie in her element." Twilight smiled and explained. "If you really want to know what it means to be Pinkie Pie, you've got to attend one of her parties." Twilight turned to Pinkie, "I should have told you to bring more supplies." "Nope-ers. I brought plenty. I'm always ready for a party!" "In case of party emergency." Twilight smiled. "Yuppers" Pinkie snapped the neckband of a plastic, motley party hat under Bodivander's chin. "Come on! You've got to sing, too, Dismal McGrumpyston." * * * "Ooh, pretty. What is that? Pink juice?" Pinkie grinned at the vial of Pink Potion Bodivander had placed over the Bunsen Burner. As the vessel's odd shape warped her reflection in its glass, Pinkie started giggling and making faces at it. "Er … yes. Pink juice." Bodivander couldn't help but grin slightly at the corners of his mouth. He quickly turned back to the burner so the others wouldn't see, embarrassed somehow that his usual staid demeanor was coming undone by Pinkie's continuing presence. "This is distilled and droughted … Pink. It is a potion that contains everything that it means to be the fourth kind of pony. Now we shall mix some of it with … " he trailed off as he collected three other bottles from their respective places on the shelves. "Earth Pony grounding" Bodivander poured some of the brownish-green dirt-like sand into a beaker like an hourglass, until it had lined the bottom completely. "Unicorn essence," Bodivander slowly poured the milky liquid into the beaker until all but the tip of the little island of sand sank beneath the waves. "Pegasus vapours" Bodivander poured a puff of the sky-blue fog into the beaker, as it settled on top of the liquid. The final scene was very serene in the dim light of the lab room. It was as if the potion was its own little world, its own universe beneath one of Luna's nights, the 'ocean' reflecting the moonlight, the dark-blue sky imitating the sky after the setting sun. The 'land' appearing to be fertile soil. It appeared to be a small version of the universe. With a gasp, Twilight realized that must be exactly what this was. It was a mimic of reality. "And finally," Bodivander turned back to the burner and stopped. The 'pink juice' was now glowing sweetly with its own inner light, as if it were some glow-in-the-dark toy- a very pink glow-in-the-dark toy, with a lot of glow to make up for a lot of dark. Twilight carefully levitated the bottle out of its flames and brought it over to Bodivander while it shone bright enough to light up the entire room. Gradually brighter and brighter it got, dwarfing all the lanterns inside, until at last, almost too bright to look at directly, it started giving out a faint hum instead, almost beneath the level of hearing. The sweet sound changed the whole feel and aura of the place, the mood of it; Both Twilight and Bodivander realized they were also in a party room's party, not simply a lab's experiment. Pinkie started humming along with the hum, and, with a giggle, Twilight joined in, too. Bodivander did not participate. Twilight turned the vial to one side as the Pink light started to pour out into the mini-planet below. The pink brightness started mixing with the sky, sea, and ground, as the world advanced deeper and deeper into sunset, or possibly sunrise, the sky turning more and more pink, giving it more and more life, infusing it with its Pinkishness. Until at last, with a flashbang and a cloud of smoke, the entire thing changed into a beaker of transparent, perfectly-clear, water-like potion. It was done. "This … we have finally discovered Panacea, the elixir of life." Bodivander's sparkling eyes gave away his bedazzlement before his smile grew, until it was, at last, as wide as Pinkie's. "We've done it!" "Hurray!" Pinkie cheered, then stopped. "What do we do now?" "We TEST it!" Twilight's levitating magic snatched the flask away, bringing to the spider the shiny new potion. Twilight dripped a precious few drops of the Panacea into the spider flask, some onto the spider, some the spider drank up from the bottom of its jar. "Now we wait ... " "Can I drink the rest of the pink juice?" Pinkie asked. "No."