//------------------------------//
// LP27: Want-Pink-Need-Pink [Random, Slice of Life] 
// Story: Half Hour Horses: Legacy Prompts 
// by HoofAndQuill 
//------------------------------//



(The prompt: Everypony loves Pie.)





(I keep coming up with ideas/subversions that don't work out, and now CHeighlund did a much better changeling one than I can manage.  Blast!  No shipping in this one though.)



"So all these bottles are full of magic potions?"

Pinkie Pie smiled happily as she bounced along the long row of bottles lined up along Twilight's new laboratory.  Her grandiose castle had much, much more room than her old treehouse did.  Twilight Sparkle nodded distractedly as she looked over the recipe and casting instructions in one of the books rescued from the Castle of the Two Sisters.  "Mmhmm.  They should all be labeled, but I haven't tested too many of them."

"Ooh!  Want-It-Need-It!  I remember THIS one!"  Pinkie poked at the little half-filled bottle with a hoof, and watched the shining, sparkly liquid swish around inside it.

"Well, yes.  I think everypony remembers that one."  Twilight looked aside in embarrassment a moment.  "But, well, it wouldn't work by pouring it on, say, a Smarty Pants doll.  Somepony would have to drink it.  When that spell is cast on a pony though, other ponies don't fight over her.  Everypony just likes the pony a lot."

When Twilight looked back, to caution Pinkie about messing with the fragile glass bottles, both Pinkie and the potion were gone.

Twilight knew that the responsible, reasonable thing to do was probably to chase after her and dispel the magic before things got completely out of hoof.  It would probably make the rest of the day a lot calmer and more normal.  But really, everypony already liked Pinkie, and Pinkie wasn't the type to use the spell's effects in any bad way.  Maybe with this little experiment, Pinkie would finally see what it might mean to have too much attention, and too many friends.  It was a friendship lesson, of a sort, and Twilight couldn't think of any better way to teach it.

So Twilight just returned to her reading.





Pinkie Pie felt sparkly.  Not sparkly like when she had glitter on her, which was fun.  Not sparkly like wearing one of Rarity's dresses, which was often fun too.  But sparkly both inside and out, sparkly with magic, and it was both fun and a little weird!

Twilight had said that this potion would make everypony like her, but that was silly!  Everypony already liked her.  Especially her bestest-best friends, like that pony over there!  "Hi, Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy's wings flared and her eyes widened at Pinkie's sudden and unexpected greeting, but she smiled when she turned to see her friend.  After a second though, her eyes did that thing that Pinkie remembered the magic doing last time too, turning into two big, pink hearts.  Pinkie couldn't help but giggle at the sight, Fluttershy looked strange like that.  "Oh, um, hello Pinkie.  You're um... looking nice today."

"Hey, Pinkie!"  Rainbow Dash's voice called out from above as she dove down and tackled Pinkie in a warm, friendly hug.  "What's going on, anything new?"

Pinkie giggled and hugged her friend back.  "Just something small!  Or maybe it's bigger than I-"

"Miss Pie, I was hoping to speak to you today-"  Mayor Mare's dignified voice was cut off by another pony's however.

"Heya, Sugarcube.  Thought y' might like some fresh cider, and-"

"Nevermind that, Darling, you are absolutely glowing today, did you do something with your mane?  It's simply-"

"Rarity!  Let ME talk to Pinkie, you're ALWAYS stealing ponies' attention!"

"Hey, are you and Rainbow Dash dating?  Does that make us adopted sisters too?"

"She's actually already an Apple, Scootaloo, don't start stealin' family members!"

"Yup."

Pinkie was still hugging Rainbow Dash, as she looked at the quickly-growing crowd that was gathering around her.  All of the ponies eyes showed the spell's influence.  A nervous little laugh escaped, before her own eyes opened wide as she realized just what was happening here.





The new castle had some interesting properties for Princess Twilight Sparkle.  Firstly it was quite large, so if she needed to be alone she could duck into any of a dozen rooms on the upper floors and it would take a while for anypony to find her.  Secondly it was innately magical, which probably helped out with the third relevant property: it buffered outside sounds very, very well.  Unlike her old, cozy, small treehouse, once she was in an interior room in her castle, she was almost always left with just nice, comfortable quiet for reading and studying.

Twilight also had a tendency to get caught up in her studies, and before she realized it, it was already the following morning. "Spiike!  Can you make us some breakfast?  I spent all night reading!"

...  There was no response.  Either he hadn't heard her or he wasn't home.  Or he was trying to eat the gemstone-looking walls again.

Twilight Sparkle trotted downstairs happily, had a calm, easy breakfast of pancakes and syrup, and was distractedly sorting through her mail before she remembered what had happened yesterdady.  Twilight took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  What could possibly have gone wrong, really?

As soon as she opened the grand doors of her castle, her question was, well, halfway answered.  All of Ponyville seemed to be draped in streamers, with discarded cupcakes and spilled cider here and there on the ground and tables.  The town was eerily silent save for a thin wisp of music drifting through the buildings.  Twilight galloped over to the first pony she saw, a cream-colored mare with a blue and pink mane... Bon Bon if she recalled the name correctly.

Bon Bon was passed out on the street next to her roommate Lyra Heartstrings.  Both ponies were just leaned up against a building seemingly at random, their coats slightly sweaty and manes all in disarray.  Both ponies also had cupcake frosting on their muzzles and were deep, deep asleep.  Prodding from Twilight didn't even start to rouse them, but a quick medical spell showed that they were just sleeping, not hurt.

That thin trail of music in the distance caught Twilight's ear again.

As she followed the sound, she passed more and more passed out ponies.  Most seemed to have simply dropped where they stood, covered in cider or cupcakes or streamers, or in piles of contented, cuddling ponies just smiling as they slept.  The party decorations seemed to be a little different than Pinkie's normal ones, put up far too hastily, and the streamers now hung flat or fluttered in the slight breeze blowing off of the Everfree forest.

The music grew a bit louder, and then Twilight turned the corner to see Town Square in an absolute mess.  Tables sat out with bits of food, pastries, vegetables, cider, fruit, some kind of mish-mash of a dozen meals and two dozen dessert courses.  Exhausted ponies slept on and under tables and seats all around.  In the middle of the square, however, was a single grammophone playing one of Pinkie's party records, and two ponies dancing.

Big Mac wasn't really dancing so much as just wobbling on his hooves.  Twilight walked slowly toward the two.  Pinkie Pie was smiling happily and dancing around the bigger stallion without a care in the world, shaking her rear and laughing.  "C'mon, Big Mac!  You can do another few songs, right?"

Big Macintosh opened his mouth to reply but only stumbled slightly.  After a moment he managed a word.  "... Nope."

The big red stallion collapsed to the ground, and in a moment was soundly sleeping like the rest of the town.  Twilight Sparkle finally made it up to her friend, staring around in disbelief.  "Pinkie?  Are you alright?  What happened here?"

"Of course I'm alright!  It was the biggest, best party EVER!  The whole town was dancing and eating and laughing and having fun!  Want to dance, Twilight?  Everypony else has party-pooped right out!"

Twilight glanced at Pinkie's offered hoof, and then around at all the exhausted ponies.  The friendship lesson, or the planned one at least, had been a failure.  But maybe, maybe the lesson was for her.  Or maybe there was no lesson.  Her horn sparked a moment, and the spell's lingering effect was removed from Pinkie.  But all the townsponies would be fine, even if cleanup might take a week.  Twilight smiled at her friend, and took her offered hoof.  "Sure, Pinkie.  Let's have fun."