Doesn't get made in this story
The cauldron bubbled with magic as ingredients flowed into it. First an aspect of the Northern Wind, then the scales of a basilisk, and then a whole ginger root.
The Cosmos Elixir: a potion like no other, and its completion required two potion masters.
Twilight Sparkle watched over her shoulder as her alchemy mentor, Potion Nova, dropped ingredients into the cauldron with perfect timing. Her vibrant blue eyes shifted from their ingredient list to their concoction with excitement, and Twilight couldn’t help but put on a giddy smile. To think Potion trusted her to help with such an advanced recipe! She didn’t know quite what they were making, but with a name like the Cosmos Elixir, it had to be impressive.
The alicorn admired how smoothly Potion worked on her part of the recipe, and how in her element she was. The ease of her movements, the flow of her sparkly mane, the glow of the cauldron off of her soft white fur.
Twilight felt her heart beat quickly and her face fell. This has been happening more often recently. As she grew more at ease working with Potion Nova, these strange intrusive thoughts kept rising up. She turned back to her work table and the ingredients spread out before her. All of her prep work was done and waiting for the right time to be added to the cauldron, but checking everything for a third time certainly wouldn’t hurt.
She read down her checklist, but her mind remained on the mare behind her. All things considered, Potion Nova certainly wouldn’t be an odd romantic partner. She was wise and intelligent in a way none of her friends were, and she was a lot of fun even outside her potion lab. Plus they shared an inability to dance, which only made dancing together all the more fun.
Twilight giggled. Oh wow, they had danced together already, hadn’t they? That was practically third date material, and they’ve already danced multiple times at that. Did Potion Nova view it that way too?
She shook her head. No, she was just being a silly filly. Even if there was any substance to her feelings, she and Potion just had a work relationship, and—
“Alright, Twi!” Potion Nova sang out. “I’m just about ready here.”
“Gah!” Twilight exclaimed, feeling the heat in her cheeks. Panicking, she searched for a mirror, and gazed into the reflective glass of a flask. Distorted as it was, she could see clear as day that her face was bright red.
Why did her thoughts have to get so intense right now? Potion Nova’s going to see her like this, and if she asked about it, Twilight knew she’d say something to give herself away. What could she do?
Twilight’s eyes widened and she put her hooves together. Of course! When in doubt, put your emotions in the potion! And then put a tight cap on it. If she shoved all of her unrequited feelings into a bottle, then surely nothing could go wrong!
Twilight quickly got to work, levitating ingredients to her, guided by what felt right. Flower petals, silphium seeds, even bits of a chocolate bar she brought. Ninety percent of a potion ingredient’s effectiveness came from its symbolic significance, and if Twilight put any thought into what she was gathering, she would have blushed even harder. She mixed them into a bottle full of potion base, and with the final chemical to act as a catalyst, she slowly and carefully squeezed a dropper. She allowed her mind to indulge itself with thoughts of Potion Nova, the intelligent and lovely potion master that she had learned so much from. Her warm smile, her sweet voice, her mysterious and fascinating past, all of it flowed into the chemical as it fell into the potion.
The bottle simmered and shook in reaction, before settling with a puff of rainbow smoke forming a heart shape. Twilight screwed on a cap, then felt immediate relief and sighed.
Just in time, as Potion Nova trotted up to her with a smile. “Everything ready on your side?”
The back of the alicorn’s neck tingled, but she could manage this. Twilight nodded and levitated her batch of ingredients. “Yup, all set!”
Potion swiped her hoof. “Great! Then let’s get the Cosmos Elixir ready!”
The alchemist turned and trotted away. Twilight quickly double checked her ingredients and followed after.
“Potion Nova, I love you!”
Twilight made a noise between a gasp and a quack, her magic giving out and dropping everything she held. Glass shattered and Potion Nova turned to her with a start.
“Twi, are you OK?”
Twilight simultaneously laughed nervously and moaned as she looked at the vials she dropped, and turned around to see who, or what, said that. And in her voice, no less.
She glanced over the work table, and movement made her zero in on the source. The potion she made, containing all of her feelings, shook. Suddenly, a pair of skinny black legs appeared on it, one after the other in a puff of smoke. It got up, stumbling at first but soon finding its balance. Its cap was loose, and the way it bounced with every movement made it look like a mouth. The potion reared back, lifted up its cap, and roared out, “Potion Nova, I—!”
Twilight screamed and rushed to the desk, clamping her hoof over the potion, muffling the rest of its declaration.
“Twilight, you don’t have to apologize,” Potion Nova said, attention focused on cleaning up the mess with her magic. She added cheerfully, “This goes to show we should really use a cart when moving a lot of stuff. Well, no big loss. We can try again tomorrow.”
Potion raised an eyebrow, seeing Twilight struggle with something on the desk. “Twi, what’s going on?”
“Nothing!” Twilight said, as she focused all her magic on keeping the potion’s lid on. “All good here!”
“It’s just that, you seem to have trouble opening that bottle. Let me help you with that.”
Potion’s magic enveloped the flask. With a gasp, Twilight sharply pulled it away and held it close. “No!”
Potion took an unsure step back, her eyebrows scrunched.
Sweat poured down Twilight’s face. Despite her best efforts, the potion was inexorably opening its mouth. She needed to get out of here. “Actually, I think I’ve actually, uh, lost interest in making potions, so I’ll just go now!”
Potion’s eyes widened. “You what? But it was just one mess, you can—”
Twilight zoomed out of the building. Potion watched out the window as she left behind a cloud of dust over the grassy hills outside and disappeared into the horizon. The unicorn extended a hoof out, then let it weakly fall to the ground. She waited a few minutes, before finally sighing and turning back.
Twilight meant to go back the next day. Saying she lost interest in potions was foolish of her, and she could have easily corrected herself to say she just wanted to go home that day. And yet, she put it off. It was still too fresh an embarrassment to address. The same was true the next day. And the next.
Before she knew it, a month had passed. Twilight walked into Sugarcube Corner and sat at the counter, where Pinkie Pie greeted her from the other side.
Pinkie leaned over with a big smile. “Hey Twilight! Have you seen Potion Nova recently?”
Twilight jumped up from her stool. “Potion? What?”
Pinkie rolled her eyes bemusedly. “Sheesh, Twilight, I know it’s been a while, but I didn’t expect you to forget her.”
Twilight landed and collected herself. “No, I know who she is. Why do you ask?”
Pinkie drooped. “I just checked in the back and we’re all out of potions! Since Potion Nova usually restocks us, I never bothered to keep track, and because of all the Cotton Candy Comet craziness, we didn’t drink any in a while, so I’m thinking maybe it’s actually been a while since she restocked. Do you know anything about that?”
Twilight smiled nervously. “Oh? She hasn’t restocked the potions? I wonder why.”
Pinkie tapped her chin. “You know, a while ago was when your last potion lesson with her was. I wonder if there’s a connection.”
Twilight stood up straight. “What, no, why would there be?!”
“You said Potion Nova said she had nothing more to teach you, and you know what happens to mentors that have nothing more to teach you? They die to show how tough the villain is!”
Pinkie stretched further over the counter and shook Twilight’s shoulders. “Twilight, you need to find a villain and beat them before Potion Nova dies!”
Twilight’s head rocked back and forth. “Piiiinkiiiie stoooop.”
Pinkie pulled her legs back, leaving Twilight vibrating. “Oops, sorry Twilight. By the way, you’re feeling really stiff, so you should get a massage on the way.”
After a moment of recovery, Twilight said, “So, uh, Pinkie, to be honest, I actually didn’t quite finish my lessons with Potion.” Her face twisted, but she decided to force it out. “To be honest, I just did something really embarrassing last time I saw her, and I’m afraid of talking to her again.”
Pinkie grew a big smile. “Even better! That means you have plenty of time to save her from the villain, and you can work through your embarrassment at the same time. But still, you shouldn’t dawdle. Go save her, Twilight!”
“But, I—”
Pinkie pointed out the door. “Go!”
Twilight moaned, giving up and walking out the door.
Twilight made the long journey to Potion Nova’s house, taking one slow step at a time.
“Potion Nova stopped sending potions? That couldn’t have anything to do with me leaving, right?” Twilight muttered to herself. “Potions are her thing! She was making potions long before I came into her life. Pinkie said the potions stopped arriving then, but correlation doesn’t mean causation. Plus, Pinkie could have the timing wrong. Memories can play tricks like that.”
She flew over a collapsed bridge.
“Though wait, maybe she didn’t stop making potions, she just stopped sending them to us. Then that definitely would be my fault. Running away during a big potion lesson like that—not to mention me ruining the ingredients. She has to be disappointed in me, there’s no way she wouldn’t be. Pinkie doesn’t have anything to do with that, though. Maybe even through a friend, she didn’t want me to drink her potions anymore? I didn’t think her resentment would go that far. I must have really offended her, and—oof!”
Twilight walked face-first into a wall. Bouncing back, she groaned and rubbed her snout. She looked up and, to her shock, found she was at Potion Nova’s house.
She looked around in confusion. Despite her slow pace, she was so stuck in her head that she lost track of time.
Twilight shook. “Alright Twi, nothing to it. Just confirm Potion Nova no longer wants to see you—and that she isn’t being killed by a villain—and head back to Sugarcube Corner.”
Her stomach tightening, she walked to the front door, gulped, and held her hoof up to knock. However, she noticed a note on the door.
A ransom note from a villain! No wonder she wasn’t around! Who was it? Tirek? Pirate ponies? A multidimensional warlord?
Twilight smacked herself. Pinkie was getting into her head. Frowning, she actually read the note.
“For those seeking my potion making business, I’m sorry to inform you that I’ve ended my service. Instead you can enjoy my new smoothie business down by the Potion Ocean!”
Twilight blinked, then read it again. Her eyes widened. Potion Nova really gave up her potion business! But why?
On one hand, Twilight felt strong relief that this had nothing to do with her, but on the other, Potion Nova moving away from her calling was terrible! She needed to get to the bottom of this. According to the note, it’d still be some time before she came home, so it was time to go to the Potion Ocean.
The rainbow waves of the Potion Ocean washed across the white sands, the scent of magic lingering in the air. This was the source of the potion base, and it held a mysterious beauty.
Twilight thought of the time she and her friends first visited this place with Potion Nova, and a comment the unicorn made resurfaced in her mind.
“Nice to see it through fresh eyes. I guess I forgot how special it is.”
Potion Nova had been at this for a long time, hadn’t she? Would she really give up her work for smoothies, of all things?
Twilight put a hoof over her forehead and scanned across the beach, quickly spotting a new structure: a hut with the sign “Potion’s Smoothies”, where the “smoothies” was clearly pasted over another word.
Twilight gritted her teeth. “Oh boy.” The fear that she caused all this came back. Still, she came this far. Leaving without an explanation would make her mind go wild, and that would be even worse.
She peered inside. The wooden floor was clean, and the tropical decorations created a cozy atmosphere. If this was her new calling, then at least she wasn’t doing a bad job.
Twilight stepped in and a bell rang. At this, the mare she was looking for popped up behind the counter. Potion Nova’s coat seemed like it had seen better days, but her mane was still radiant, and she had a glowing smile. “Hello, and welcome to—”
She froze, and Twilight waved with an awkward smile.
Potion tilted back with her eyes wide. “Twilight! Oh, uh, haven’t seen you in a while. How are things?”
Twilight stammered. “Oh, well, um, fine, really. Just saved this dimension from falling apart, actually. But that’s not important. Do you have a moment to talk?”
Potion frowned and looked around, then walked past the counter. “Well, I suppose I don’t get all that much hoof traffic. More crabs than ponies, really. Opening a shop on a secluded beach may not have been the best business plan.”
The alicorn sighed. “What happened to you? Why are you making smoothies now?” She furrowed her brows. “Is it because I ruined your chance to make the Cosmos Elixir?”
Potion waved her hooves. “Oh Twi, no, the Cosmos Elixir is nothing. It’s true that without another potion master, I couldn’t make it, but I can deal with that. It’s more that…” She looked to the side. “Do you mind if I tell a quick story?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, of course I don’t mind.”
Potion walked out the door, and Twilight followed after. They stopped in front of the ocean, and Potion gazed out somberly.
“This view is one of my first memories, you know. I don’t remember it too clearly, but I recall messing around in the water. Soon after that, I remember taking the water in a cup, mixing in some seashells and sand, and creating my very first potion. It turned the sand rainbow colored, which made for a great sandcastle.”
She giggled, and Twilight had an easy smile.
“After a while, I was making all kinds of potions, but the beach only provided so many ingredients, so I started venturing out. There weren’t any ponies around at the time, so I was mainly entertaining myself. But eventually, I did find somepony, and they were amazed by what I could make. They begged to be my apprentice, and I accepted, but they really struggled. Potion-making is a delicate balance of science and emotions, and they were short-tempered, so it literally blew up in their face. I had other apprentices over the years that didn’t work out for one reason or another.” She rolled her eyes. “One apprentice kept trying to clap her hooves together to make potions, and I kept telling her that’s not how alchemy works.”
Potion gained a wry grin. “One of my apprentices was a prince of some kingdom or another. He created a love potion, and it ended up tearing the kingdom apart. I was pretty devastated at the time, but I can see the humor in it now. Plus, it created a nice holiday.”
Twilight nodded, but then did a double take. “Wait, are you talking about Hearts and Hooves Day?”
“Yup, one and the same.”
Twilight’s head spun. How long ago was that? She had idly considered that a skilled unicorn like Potion Nova would be long-lived, but hearing such casual confirmation was something else. She wondered if she should press her for more information, but before she could come up with a response, Potion had continued on.
“The point is, I’ve had a lot of apprentices over the years, and it was getting pretty rote. I teach them, they mess up and give up. But then I met you.” Potion turned to look into Twilight’s eyes, and the alicorn couldn’t help but blush and look away. “You may have made a lot of mistakes on the first day, but you got past them way faster than anypony else. Your excitement at learning was like nothing else I encountered before, and it was infectious. My elixirs, the Potion Ocean, you made me see it all with new eyes. I felt really…”
Potion Nova’s eyes widened and her cheeks turned red. “Well, I mean, you’re the first pony I’ve really connected with. You got me, you know.” She frowned. “That’s why when you said you didn’t want to make potions anymore, it really hurt me.”
Twilight furrowed her brows. “Potion, I…”
“At first I figured you just meant you didn’t want to make the Cosmos Elixir, and you’d be back the next day, and I would have been fine with that, but then you never came back.”
Twilight forced a smile. “Yeah, about that…”
“I thought I’d be fine with it, like the previous times my apprentices left, but then my potions all started coming out wrong. Hold on, let me show you.”
With a flash of magic, Potion Nova summoned a smoothie cup and filled it with ocean water. Ingredients from the beach flew into it. They mixed together in a flash of light, and she poured the result onto the sand. The white sands coalesced into a musty gray mass, which hardened and cracked, before finally shattering.
“Oh boy,” Twilight said with a frown. “That was supposed to make it rainbow, right?”
Potion Nova floated up and spread out her hooves. “Emotions play a huge part in potion making, and if one completely takes over, then every potion you make will reflect that, even if you get the ingredients just right. That’s why I switched to smoothies. Just put fruit and ice cream in a blender and you’re good to go—not to say I go that simple. Spinach, broccoli, sand, I experiment with everything. I have standards as a scientist, after all.”
“You really—wait, sand?”
Potion shrugged. “Some experiments don’t work out.”
Twilight shook her head. “Anyway, you really felt that bad about me leaving?”
“It did, yeah. It isn’t anything I haven’t seen before, but the suddenness, and the fact that it was you, made it hit all the worse for some reason. I can’t really explain it myself.”
“I can’t believe you connected to me that much. In that case…” Twilight took a deep breath. “There’s something I need to show you. You said if my emotions are strong enough, any potion I make will reflect that, right?”
Potion nodded.
“In that case,” Twilight said as she took the now-empty smoothie cup and filled it with ocean water herself. Her magic guiding her, objects on the beach flew into the cup. As the last ingredient went in, she concentrated her thoughts, dredging up feelings she had hidden away for weeks. The result shook until a puff of rainbow smoke forming a heart rose from it, and it settled down.
As both mares stared at it, Twilight said, “Give it a second.”
A few moments later, Twilight wondered if she made a dud, but then suddenly the potion blasted out, “Potion Nova, I love you!”
Despite expecting it, Twilight screamed along with Potion Nova and dropped the concoction. Soaking into the sand, the potion formed a rainbow heart, with “TS + PN” written inside.
Twilight was beet red. Academically, she knew that this was what she wanted to happen, but that didn’t make it any less embarrassing. Potion Nova looked at her with wide eyes, and words poured out of Twilight’s mouth. “It’s the silliest thing, but when we were making the Cosmos Elixir, my crush on you started hitting really hard. I made another potion to release those feelings, but then it started talking in front of you, and I freaked out. Then I was too embarrassed to see you, and that’s really all there is to it. You don’t have to reciprocate my feelings, but I really do want to keep making potions with you.” She smiled nervously. “If you want.”
Potion Nova stood silent for an endless moment, before finally saying, “Oh.”
“Oh?”
She cleared her throat and blushed. “Excuse me, I meant to say…Oh.”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “Oh.”
“Hearing you, and the potion, say all that is starting to clear things up in my own mind,” Potion said as she mixed together another potion batch. “I don’t fully understand my feelings myself, but if I’m right, this new potion will make things clear.”
Potion’s concoction fizzed and settled, and then she poured it onto the ground. It too formed a rainbow heart, and inside was written, “I like you too Twilight, which is strange because I’m pretty sure I’m on the aromantic spectrum, and I’m not sure this is really equivalent to the love you’re feeling, but I think I’m willing to try it out, because you’re an amazing pony that I love spending time with. So… want to be my special somepony?”
Potion had an uneasy grin. “Alright, either that wasn’t clear at all, or entirely too clear.”
Twilight read it and smiled warmly. “That sounds clear to me.”
The two mares leapt into a hug, and nuzzled against each other.
Potion Nova broke out and giggled. “Well, special somepony, now that we’ve both cleared up our emotions, how about we get back to making that Cosmos Elixir? Gotta make up for my lack of service to Sugarcube Corner with something special.”
Twilight smiled and tilted her head. “What is the Cosmos Elixir anyway? I was fine waiting when we were making it the same day you told me, but it’s been a month, and I have to know.”
Potion Nova waved a hoof. “Oh, yeah, it’s a bit less cosmic than it sounds. It’s really just a very tasty drink. But! You know how when you taste something really good, that makes everything else taste bad? Well this does the opposite: it tastes so good that it makes everything else taste good too!”
Twilight laughed. “I know Pinkie would love that!”
As Potion walked away, Twilight took a moment to look at the two hearts on the ground. With the way they seeped into the sand, it almost seemed like they could touch. “You know, I wonder what would happen if we mixed together these love declaration potions.”
Potion Nova turned back and groaned. “Sorry Twilight, I’m not really ready for a child right now.”
“Oh, alright, that makes s—wait, what?”