> Of Potions and Passions Untold
>  by Bronyxy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1 A Friend in Need
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.
> 2 Unintended Consequences
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, Applejack rose early as farm ponies do, and was surprised to see that her hooves had turned white and the tip of her tail looked as if it had been dip-dyed purple.  She looked at what she saw, unable to fathom quite why her trademark orange coat and blonde tail were not as they had been last night.  Now, it was true to say that she and Rarity had, well, buried their differences following Twilight’s sleepover and were now getting on a whole lot better than they ever had before.

“Well, white coat and purple sure go well on Rarity” she said to herself “But on me it just looks plain creepy, if you ask me.”
Applejack set about doing her chores, and soon her hooves and her legs were covered in mud, so nopony could tell what colour she was underneath.  Fortunately.

Next up was the immaculate Rarity.  She stepped daintily out of bed and trotted the few steps to her mirror to see how she had fared following the night’s sleep.  She stopped suddenly, pupils turning to pinpricks.  She lifted a forehoof and looked at it closely.  It was orange.  It shouldn’t be orange; it was white yesterday, she would swear to it.  Each of the hooves was the same.  Orange.  She made as if to scream, then stopped herself abruptly.  She didn’t want anypony coming in and finding her like this.  No, that would never do.

Rarity focused and her horn started to glow as she cast the vanishment spell that she hadn’t used since her school days.  It had been useful then because she had received her cutie mark before her friends, and to avoid jealousy she had learned this spell to pretend she was a blank flank until her friends caught up with her.  With a little bit of focusing and a bit of effort she felt the familiar tingling feeling wash over her as her colour returned to normal, but her cutie mark also vanished.  Tutting to herself, she set about painting replacement cutie marks on her flanks with makeup, and as she was bent around doing this she caught sight of the blonde tips to her tail.  Would her troubles ever end?

She couldn’t possibly re-apply her cutie marks if her tail needed dying, so she mixed up some mane and tail dye and then soaked her tail, cursing every minute this process was delaying her.  Downstairs, the smell of her sister’s cooking was wafting up to assault her nostrils, not the aroma of exquisite cordon bleu refinement but the dark clouds of burnt offerings.  She was supposed to have been down sooner and prepared breakfast for them both, but resolving these blemishes had taken far longer than she had anticipated and in response, her eye started to twitch.

She knew she couldn’t leave her tail part way through its colouring process, so she had to grit her teeth and pray that she would still have a kitchen left when Sweetie Belle had finished cremating her groceries.  Finally the dye had taken and she was able to condition and dry her tail, but re-applying the cutie marks would have wait as she ran downstairs before the boutique burned down.
“Oh, hi Sis” greeted Sweetie Belle wearing a satisfied smile in the knowledge of a job well done “You were late up so I thought I would do us breakfast.”

Rarity’s eye twitched again as she opened all the windows to let the smoke out.  Then she looked at the charcoaled morsels that had once been food, smoking mournfully on her plate and really tried to keep her temper under control.  This was not shaping up to be a good day.
“Uh, Sis?” queried the younger sibling “Where has your cutie mark gone?”
This was all she needed right now.

Quietly she got up from table, delicately tucked her chair away, raised her head high, tiptoed elegantly back upstairs, entered her bedroom, closed the door and threw herself onto her bed for a good cry.  The boutique would be late opening today.

Twilight Sparkle awoke and trotted down to do breakfast for her and Spike.  Books were everywhere; last night’s study binge had left its usual trail of chaos throughout the library and Spike hadn’t yet got up to put things straight.
“Pancakes” she thought ”Yes, pancakes – that would be perfect.”

She set about cracking the eggs and then suddenly noticed that her hooves had turned a light shade of blue, very reminiscent of a certain pegasus marefriend.  She stared open-mouthed at her discovery.
“Umm, Spike” she said tentatively “Got a minute?”
“Breakfast done already?” he asked.
“No Spike, I need you to look at something for me.”
The baby dragon traipsed into the kitchen looking at the ingredients on the side and how far Twilight had got in preparing breakfast.
“No Spike”  sighed Twilight in exasperation “Over here.”
It took him a little time to notice, but when he did he commented:
“So what’s with the new look then Twilight?  Dying your coat to look like Rainbow Dash?  Oh, and I like that rainbow flash on your tail too …”

Twilight was mortified.
“What do I do Spike, what do I do?”
“You could finish dying the rest of your coat and tail.  Oh, and your mane too - it suits you.”
“Oh, no no no no no!!” she cried and ran upstairs.
“Oh well” said Spike “Looks like I’m doing breakfast then”.

Rainbow Dash was late up as usual.  She went through her rather casual morning routine and flew off to perform as Ponyville’s weather pony with the minimum of delay.  Once she had finished her duties she did some flying practice and then landed in the village to see what was going down.  She saw a purple and white striped helmet crouched low over a set of handlebars kicking up a trail of dust and gave a little smile; her protégé was clearly just as keen as her to be noticed for her speedy skills.
“Hey Rainbow Dash” said the orange pegasus filly nonchalantly, skidding to a stop just in front of her idol.
“Wassup little buddy?” came the reply.
“Oh, I’ve just learned an awesome new trick” the orange filly continued “I go down this hill really fast, hit the take off ramp and fly through the air, jump over Applejack’s cart an then land the other side.  Pretty cool, huh?”
“Nice moves, kid” said Rainbow supportively, moving in to give her a playful noogie.  But then she stopped abruptly.  She had suddenly noticed that her forehoof was lilac – lilac!  She settled for a rather unexpectedly subdued hug instead and then pulled away to check out her other hooves.  Sure enough, they were all lilac too!

Rainbow gave an indecipherable excuse and shot off to the privacy of her home where she could take time to check herself over.  Sure enough, her cyan hooves were now lilac and the tip of her tail had changed to purple and pink. She tried to wash it off, but no chance; in fact it even looked like it was growing more pronounced.  In desperation, she dug out some rainbow coloured leg warmers and put them on; that would have to do for now.

Twilight emerged from her bedroom wearing spats over her hooves.  They were smart, but a little old fashioned.  When Spike saw her, he collapsed in a fit of laughter.
“It’s not that funny Spike” said the exasperated librarian.
“Where did you find them?” he asked in between giggles.
“They’re very fashionable if you must know” replied Twilight defensively.
“Maybe, but not in this universe!” he shot back.
Twilight stomped off in a huff and left her wise-cracking assistant to breakfast.  She had to get answers, and there was only one place to do that.

Twilight arrived at Zecora’s hut to be greeted by the friendly zebra.

“Hello Twilight, please do tell,
I hope Fluttershy’s recovering well.”

“It’s not her I’ve come about Zecora; it’s this” said Twilight removing one of her spats and also showing the tips of her tail.

“Oh my, what’s this I’ve spied?
I think we’d better go inside”

Zecora quickly checked her inventory of potions and shook her head.

“Oh that Pinkie, what has she done?
She took a bottle, but the wrong one”

I should have watched her, I am remiss;
She took it from that end not from this.

Tell me straight, if you dare,
Do you love a certain mare?”

Twilight blushed and looked at the ground self-consciously before nodding.
“Rainbow Dash and I, we’re kind of an item” she said bashfully.

“I thought as much, for the potion that’s gone
Is Heart’s Desire, and that’s very strong.

If it’s been mixed with the coat restorer,
Your colour will change to the mare you adore.”

“What?” Twilight cried.

“The colour will continue to grow
Until you are changed from top to toe.

It starts at the hooves then up the legs,
Over the body up to the head.

Only once fully covered will it fade
And put an end to this charade”

“Oh no!” gasped Twilight as she visibly sagged “Then it could be the same for Rainbow too!  We’re both going to change colour completely before we return to normal?”
Zecora nodded.

“How long does the whole process take” she asked, her voice getting more shrill.

“It’s not exact, but my best guess for you:
At least three weeks to work its way through.”

“Is there anything we can do?” she exclaimed, a note of desperation in her voice.
Zecora shook her head.

A thought crossed her mind in a flash; what about Applejack and Rarity – could they be as romantically involved like she was with Rainbow?
She knew Rainbow would definitely be affected, so she had to make her first priority; then she could think about the other two afterwards …

She flew around trying to see if her marefriend was taking a nap on a cloud as she usually did at this time of day, but upon finding nothing, she went round to her cloud house instead.  She knocked, but there was no answer, so she used the key that Rainbow had given her and let herself in.
“Rainbow, it’s me Twilight” she called.
“Oh Twi” said the slightly startled pegasus “I – I wasn’t expecting guests”
“Rainbow, we need to talk.”
“It – it’s not really convenient right now, you know.”
“Yes, I do know” said Twilight reassuringly “Let me guess; hooves and tail?”
“How’d you know?” replied the weather pony.
“Come in here, we’ve got a lot to talk about” said Twilight.

Twilight explained and Rainbow face hoofed at the prospect that she would lose her trademark cyan coat and rainbow mane and tail for a short period, but was reassured that it would come back afterwards.
“Hey, I love you Twi” said the pegasus “And you know I’d give you anything, but I never thought that meant my awesome rainbow colouring!”
“Just think of it as a loan” said Twilight “I promise I’ll take good care of it till you get it back.”
The two marefriends shared a cuddle together as they projected how this colour swap would go over the next few days and decided that they would continue what they usually did rather than hide away, as both felt they didn’t need to hide their love.

Twilight realised that they had not been the only ponies with Fluttershy when the mix-up happened, so Rainbow volunteered to explain to Applejack whilst Twilight would go to Rarity and they would meet up at Sweet Apple Acres.
> 3 Friends are Always There for You
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her especially busy day behind her, Pinkie set off to spend some quality time with Fluttershy.  Harry let her in as before and showed her through to her pegasus friend.
“Hi Fluttershy” said the chirpy pony “How are you today?”
“A bit better thanks” she replied “The girls all came round after you’d gone and we had a lovely time.  The woodland creatures treated us all to cake and drinks and we had a little picnic in my room.  It was all really sweet.”

Pinkie froze.

“Just to be sure” she said hesitantly “You mean a pink frosted cake and pink drinks?”
“Oh yes” replied Fluttershy “A beautiful pink cake – I’m afraid there isn’t any left now.”

Pinkie’s worst fears hit home.

“But the drinks were purple, not pink” corrected the pegasus “It was all very nice.”

Slowly, Pinkie got to her hooves, not quite sure what to do and walked slowly out to find the butler.
“Harry” she said slowly “The cake I brought round yesterday, and the bottle; please would you show them to me?”
Harry went out to the kitchen and found nothing but a cake board with a few crumbs and a bit of pink frosting on and an empty bottle, both of which looked familiar to Pinkie, way too familiar.
“Ooopsy!” she said, before running out of the door.

Following Twilight’s visit earlier, Zecora had been expecting Pinkie and sure enough, here she was.  Pinkie poured out her tale of misunderstanding and asked Zecora what would happen and more importantly, what she could do.

“Pinkie my dear, in all your commotion,
You picked up the wrong bottle of potion.

It was not feather flu cure that you took,
But Heart’s Desire if you took a close look.

You worked for the best and tried so hard,
But the brews have mixed and their effects marred.

Twilight has seen me an explained what’s done;
She’ll tell you more, but make haste and run.”

Rainbow swooped over Sweet Apple Acres and saw a particularly muddy pony in a Stetson hat and flew upside down in front of her.
“Hi AJ” she said “Nice to see Fluttershy yesterday.
“Eeyup” responded the earth pony, continuing her work.
“Well you sound like AJ, but I’ve never heard a mud pie talk before …” chuckled the pegasus.
“Nope.”
“Er, AJ” she continued “Anything the matter?”
“Nope.”
“Nothing to do with hooves perhaps?”

At this the earth pony stopped in her tracks.

“Now, just what in the hay are you talkin’ about?”
Rainbow landed and pulled up one of her leg warmers, so her friend could see for herself.
“Oh, I see” said Applejack “You too, huh?”
“Yup” said Rainbow, poking fun at her friend’s accent, at which they both started laughing, and Applejack began to relax for the first time that day.  Rainbow then explained what had happened and Zecora’s prediction for its spreading before the final return of her true colours.

Twilight opened the door to the Carousel Boutique triggering a bell on a spring and Sweetie Belle trotted out happily, summoned by the delicate tinkling sound ringing throughout the shop.
“Hi Princess Twilight” said the young assistant showing a sparkling smile “How can we help you today?”
“I’m actually looking for Rarity” said Twilight.
“She’s a little bit under the weather today” replied Sweetie Belle.
“Oh, I shouldn’t be at all surprised” said Twilight “Would you show me through please?”

Rarity was sat at a sewing machine, eye trembling with obvious tension.
“Hello Rarity” said Twilight calmly.
“It’s not my fault!” retorted the white unicorn “Every time I cast the vanishment spell and re-dye my tail and paint on my cutie marks, it just keeps leaching through.  Every time!”
“You really must teach me that vanishment spell some time Rarity” said Twilight.
“It must be defective” replied Rarity, blubbering “It’s not working properly.  My lovely coat, my beautiful tail, all going wrong!”

Rarity broke down in tears alarmingly in front of Twilight who had never seen her friend so down.
“Hey it’s OK Rarity” soothed the alicorn.
“It’s not OK! “ shot back the unicorn “It doesn’t happen to anypony else does it?  It’s just me!”
Twilight took off one of her spats.
“Rarity, is it anything like this?”
Rarity looked up through a veil of tears and stopped in mid snivel, mouth falling open.
“What’s going on, darling?” she asked quietly, and Twilight explained.

Twilight finally coaxed Rarity out into public for an important meeting with a very special somepony, but she had still put on boots to cover her hooves.  She walked a little self-consciously with Twilight towards Sweet Apple Acres, deftly swishing her tail away from anypony she saw to avoid casual observation and awkward comment.

When they arrived, they could see Rainbow Dash joking with what looked like an animated mud monster with a Stetson hat.  Rarity gasped at the state Applejack was in, but overcame her usual reticence of dirty things once she realised that it was nothing more than a defence mechanism not dissimilar to her own.  In fact it was probably a lot less stressful than constantly recasting the vanishment spell, re-dying her tail and re-applying her cutie marks on a regular basis.  She sighed in defeat.

“Nice leg warmers Rainbow Dash” said Rarity with the beginnings of a smile starting to cross her face.
“Nice boots Rarity” came the response.
“Nice mud darling” said Rarity in her most sympathetic voice.
“Well, shoot” replied the farm pony “Ah’m just gettin’ in practice for the next Sisterhooves Social.”
This broke the ice, and all ponies enjoyed a good laugh together for the first time since this had stated.

“Rainbow and I have talked this through” announced Twilight “Whilst it is not the way we would have chosen to announce our love to Equestria, we have decided to roll with it and wear each other’s colours with pride.  I know you two have been keeping your love more discrete than us, and so it’s going to be a lot harder for you, but it is an approach you may want to consider.  Please know that whichever way you choose to go, Rainbow Dash and I will support you fully.”

“Applejack” said Rarity flashing her beautiful big blue eyes “I want you to know that I really love you.”
With that, she pulled of her boots and stood fully exposed in front of her marefriend showing off her orange hooves and yellowing tail.  She had never felt so vulnerable in her life while she waited for her marefriend to pass judgement.
“An’ ah love you too Rarity.”
“Just one thing, darling” said the relieved Rarity taking on a more prim voice “Go wash yourself off first please.”
“Ah’m on it” said the farm pony, trotting off to find a hose.

“That was a brave thing you did” said Twilight.
“I can only begin to imagine the comments I’ll get” replied Rarity in resignation “But perhaps now is the time to come out.”

A pink blur suddenly materialised next to them.  Pinkie stopped dead, a trail of dust settling behind her, her tongue hanging out, panting.
“I’ve been looking all over to find you” she panted “There’s been a terrible mix-up …”
She looked at the hooves and tails of her friends and stopped, no further words being necessary.
“Ooopsy!” she grimaced.

“Don’t worry Pinkie” reassured Twilight “We know what happened and we don’t blame you.”
“You don’t?” gasped the pink equine, eyes wide in surprise “I would blame me if I were you and you were me.  I think …”
The three multicoloured ponies gave Pinkie a heartfelt hug to prove everything was alright.

Just then, Applejack walked over, a little self-conscious as this was the first time she had shown off her new colours to anypony.
“Well Rarity” she drawled “What you see is what you got.”
Rarity walked over to her marefriend and gave her and affectionate nuzzle.
“Are you up for what lies ahead, darling?” she asked.
“Ah reckon ah can do it if you’re by my side, like.”
And with that, they kissed; the first time any of their friends had ever witnessed such a display of intimacy between the couple.

“Come on girls” said Twilight, taking command “There’s one pony we haven’t checked in with this morning.  Let’s go and see how Fluttershy is.”

With each step taken, the friends became less embarrassed about their new colours and relaxed in each other’s company, the two couples now very definitely displaying their affection more openly.  Pinkie meanwhile was happily bouncing along behind them, relieved that things had worked out so well and that everypony still loved her.

When they arrived at the woodland cottage, Rainbow knocked at the door with her lilac hoof and Twilight covered it with her cyan hoof, both gently turning to hold hooves and share a quick kiss before Harry opened the door to them.

He gave them a slightly quizzical look then showed then through.
“No!” squeaked Fluttershy “I’m not ready to see guests today!”
“Fluttershy” enquired Twilight “Are you OK?”
“Yes!” piped Fluttershy “No!  Oh, I’m not sure …”
“Can we come in?” she persisted.

There was no further response, so the friends all entered the rather dark bedroom to find their friend tucked up in bed, a duvet tightly up round her neck.
“You’re looking better today, darling” said Rarity.
“Eeeep!” replied Fluttershy.
“What’s the matter there, Sugarcube?” asked Applejack.
“It’s nothing …” whispered Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash caught sight of Fluttershy’s pale yellow leg poking out from the duvet and noticing that the colour had changed to light green at the hoof, eye-motioned towards the others.
“Uhh, guys” said Rainbow “Doesn’t Discord have one light green hind leg?”
Fluttershy visibly blanched at the comment and quickly tried to re-arrange her bedding.

Twilight seated herself, making herself comfortable “Fluttershy, have we got a story for you …”