Pink
Chapter One: Mornings
It sickened him. The very sight of Rainbow Land in the distance, glowing with colour just on the edge of the pits. It hadn't always been like this. Once, long ago, the Shadow King had ruled this entire world and those had been better times. There had been no revolting reds. Ghastly greens needed never to be thought of. Even belligerent blues were unheard of. But Rainbow Brite had come along and ruined it all.
Before her coming he had lived like a Prince. Now he lived like a cornered rat. And so far nothing he did seemed to be able to restore the land to its original murky glory.
Lurky was of no use either. Sure, he had his uses. The 'brawn' to his 'brains'. But truth be told it seemed Lurky ruined more of his schemes than he helped. Since the 'accident' that had transformed Lurky into his current gloomy, yet overly large sprite like form he had been nothing but a hindrance. But not this time. This time Lurky was out of the picture, sent to the other side of Rainbow Land on a 'mission' that had no real purpose but to get him out of Murky's hair.. what hair he had left anyway.
With him gone this plan would succeed. It had to. He had come so close before, but each time he was foiled by someone else's incompetence. Moonglow for example. He had been on the right track with that plan. Moonglow was the Colour Kid responsible for colouring the night. Therefore it stood to reason that exposure to bright light would drain her of her powers and weaken her. It had worked, for a time at least. Whilst he held Moonglow the night's sky had lost all trace of the sickening beauty that the female colour kid periodically infected it with. But Rainbow Brite had foiled his plan and before he could drain all of Moonglow's powers his captive had been rescued.
So close. He had been so very close. But his limited success proved that the Colour Kids were indeed mortal and could be drained of their powers. That gave him knowledge and, as the old saying went, knowledge was power.
Murky walked to his massive wall encompassing bookshelf and removed one of the many Rainbow Land scientific encyclopaedias he possessed. Flipping through the pages, eyes darting over random passages, he soon found the section he was after. Sitting himself down on the floor at that very spot, too engrossed to bother heading to a chair and simply crossing his legs under him, Murky began to read a scientific article that discussed the colours that each Colour Kid wielded and their overall effect on the world.
The journal began by discussing the 'Primary Colours' of the additive spectrum and the kids that wielded them. Red Butler oversaw items dealing with the colour red, Buddy Blue oversaw items dealing with the colour blue and Patty O'Green oversaw items dealing with the colour green. Beneath the text was a coloured diagram of the Additive Colour Kids and a table detailing measurements of what frequency of the light spectrum they derived their powers from.
It was only with strong self-control that Murky could force his eyes to not look away from the page. Though seeing the bright printed colours revolted him he must know his enemy. And no pain, no gain.
Beneath the section devoted to the Primary Colour Kids was a table discussing the other Kids of the light spectrum, the colours of Yellow, Orange, Purple and Indigo being managed by Canary Yellow, Lala Orange, Shy Violent and Indigo retrospectively. And detailed notes on the light frequency their colour powers operated on were also given.
And then.. that was it.
Murky slammed the book shut and tossed it aside, not able to control his disgust at looking at the bright, glaring colours any longer. Though it had been painful, the reading had left him with something to think about. Seven Colour Kids had been listed.
As loath as he was to admit it, Murky knew each of the colours of the rainbow by name. And he knew that there was a Kid to manage each of those colours. But Murky also knew that in Rainbow Land there were in fact Eight Colour Kids, if you ignored Moonglow who fell into the same Kid archetype as that Stormy brat.
Seven colours, Eight Kids. There was a Kid who didn't belong.
And, Murky considered, perhaps it meant this Kid was weaker from the rest. Perhaps he had just found his next target. He had failed with Moonglow. But this time things would be different.
Tickled Pink closed her eyes and hugged the back of Sunriser's neck as the horse galloped through the night-covered mountainside. She thought, not for the first time, exactly how lucky she was. All up only three horses lived in the entirety of Rainbow Land and she was lucky enough to be the owner of one of them.
Well owner wasn't the right word. In fact, Pink thought to herself, thinking of Sunriser as merely an object or a creature to be possessed was very distasteful. Their relationship was more a partnership. They were friends and Sunriser let Pink ride her because of that. But she still thought of herself as Sunriser's owner only because it was the best word to convey her feelings towards the beautiful wild pink horse. Tickled Pink took care of her, groomed her, fretted for her whenever Sunriser was gone into the mountains of Rainbow Land for too long. And Pink was the only person, apart from Rainbow Brite, that Sunriser ever let ride her.
If this didn't make Pink feel special enough, Pink was also the only Colour Kid with a horse. The other two horses in Rainbow land being ridden by Rainbow Brite and Stormy.
She hugged Sunriser's neck a little tighter at the thought and just smiled. Feeling so very special.
"Colour Crystal for your thoughts?" Sunriser said, slowing down from a gallop to a trot as she approached the peak of one of Rainbow Land's highest mountains. "I'm not going too fast for you am I? You are holding on to me so tightly."
A pink blush coloured Tickled Pink's cheeks and she loosened her grip around Sunriser's neck, saying with a giggle, "You weren't going too fast. I was just hugging you. Have I ever told you how special you make me feel?"
Sunriser laughed as she came to a stop at the very edge of the mountain top peak, saying happily as Pink climbed down from her back, "Only every time you ride me, Tickled Pink. But the fact that you always remind me is one of the reasons I'm so happy to let you ride me." She lowered her head to nuzzle her nose against Pink's shoulder, not having the correct limbs to give her a hug but the affection of the gesture was evident, "But if we stand here talking for much longer we'll miss the day before it even begins. It is almost time."
Tickled Pink giggled again, something she was notorious for, at the thought and opened the star shaped pouch on her all pink belt of her all pink dress. As soon as the flap of her pouch was undone the dark early morning landscape around her brightened from the light her exposed pink star sprinkles within. Pink carefully scooped a handful of the sprinkles out of her pouch and turned her attention to the night-time sky visible off the edge of the mountain.
Moonglow really had done an excellent job, as usual, Pink thought. It was such a shame to destroy her beautiful night sky. But, as Rainbow always said, 'Things have to happen when it's time'. And it was time for morning.
"Ready Sunriser?" Pink happily called, bringing her cupped hands of star sprinkles to her mouth, "For here we go!" and taking a deep breath Tickled Pink blew into her cupped hands. Her breath caught the pink sprinkles within and sent them flying into the dark night-time sky. Speeding away from the two pink mountaintop watchers, across the black star lit atmosphere they raced like hundreds of tiny pink comets until they disappeared into the distance.
Both Pink and Sunriser watched the horizon silently; expectantly. And gradually the dark horizon began to lighten. Slowly traces of pink began to line the distant dark horizon sitting clouds. Then more pink began to appear, this time across the horizon itself. Minutes silently passed and the sky before the two slowly transformed from a dark nightscape into a dazzlingly beautiful pink sunrise.
It wasn't until the sun actually peeked up over the horizon that the silence between the two was broken, with Sunriser saying softly as she looked away from the sky now that it was too bright with the sun present, "There's another reason I'm happy to let you ride me, Tickled. And that's because I'm your biggest fan."
Long before Sunriser had ever met the Colour Kid responsible for sunrises she had always felt an inexplicable connection to them. Each day she had watched them from her solitude up in the mountains, being named 'Sunriser' by the sprites that lived at the base of the Rainbow Mountains because it was only during sunrises and sunsets that anyone ever caught a glimpse of the legendary pink horse.
Back then Sunriser had fallen in love with the beauty of each sunrise. And now Tickled Pink let her witness their creation. It made Sunriser feel so very special.
Tickled Pink's ever happy face split into an even wider smile, if that was possible, at the compliment and said, turning her eye critically back towards the clouds to look at what was left of her creation. "I just hope the people of Earth like that sunrise." But if she was unhappy with it, it was too late now. Already it was beginning to slowly flow across the earth, becoming the sunrise for each person's new day. It would start off at the extreme end of Asia, race across the continent and hit Australia along the way. Hours later it would hit Europe and Africa and then finally at the end of the Rainbow Land day it would hit South and North America and return to Rainbow Land, becoming Rainbow Land's sunset.
"I'm sure they will." reassured Sunriser. "They'd have to be blind to miss it. It really was beautiful. And when they look at it they'll feel every bit as happy as if they had seen one of Rainbow Brite's rainbows. I'm sure." The pink horse lowered herself down to a kneeling position to allow Tickled Pink to mount her more easily and said, encouragingly, "You'll see that when it returns tonight. In the meantime we've got a whole new day ahead of us. Want to see if we can catch Moonglow on her way home? I bet I can run fast enough to reach Colour Castle before she gets there."
Pink giggled and climbed up onto Sunriser's back, saying mischievously, "And if she is already in bed by the time we get there I'm sure Starlite will be up."
To this Sunriser gave an exaggerated scoff, shaking her head and long pink mane, saying a little defensively as she moved into a trot down the steeper section of the mountain, "So? Why would I want to see him."
Tickled just laughed again and gave Sunriser a friendly pat on the neck to show she was just teasing. It was a good thing that Sunriser was a horse and covered in hair. For Tickled Pink couldn't see exactly how much the mention of Starlite had made Sunriser blush.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away on Earth the alarm clock of a young sleeping brown haired boy began to chime. Roused from his dreams of scents and sounds Anthony felt along the edge of his bedside table and eventually found the chiming clock, pushing the button upon its top to silence it. With a sigh he yawned and stretched, listening carefully. Soon he would hear his mother's footsteps, indicating she was making her way to his door. And then there would be the same knocking there was each morning of his mother coming to help him get ready for school.
Anothny gritted his teeth in annoyance at the thought. He hated it. She treated him like he was a child. He was 13 years old! Why couldn't she see that he could do things himself?
A deep frown having now been set across his facial features, Anthony slid himself out of bed, determined that he would prove it to her. He would get ready this morning by himself and when his mum came to wake him up he would be dressed and prepared for school, finally proving to her that he could be independent.
As the young boy carefully stepped through his room, in case he'd accidentally left anything on his floor to stumble over, and passed his bedroom window the glorious sunrise that was evitable outside might have raised his mood, had he been able to see it.
But truth be told colours didn't really mean much to Anthony at all. For he had been blind since birth. In fact Anthony had never seen a colour in his entire life.