Princess and Her Pinkish Pups

Princess had a mission. From the moment she had discovered pink harpups existed, she knew she needed one of her very own. She’d accidentally gathered a little flock of harpups at the yearly migration nearly two weeks ago, and it didn’t take long for each one to receive a cute name befitting of their appearance and a small pink bow or two to match their new caretaker. All six of her harpups were the standard black, which was adorable, but certainly didn’t match Princess' pastel aesthetic. Not to mention, she’d given one of the poor creatures the name Pinky! Fate had decided that the harpup needed to turn pink, and Princess had decided the rest of her pets would follow suit. Thus began her mission to find some pink!

The first question she had was how imps even became different colors. To the bunternet! It took only seconds to find her answer: Dango. And luckily for her, it didn’t even seem all that difficult to make! After a brief skim through a recipe, Princess found a video with a cute bun chef that seemed easy enough to follow along. But first things first, she needed ingredients. Princess dashed to the grocery store near her place, a trail of six harpups waddling after her. In no time at all she was on her way back to her apartment, holding up the flour triumphantly. Step one was done!

Once they all made it back to her small apartment, Princess tossed her groceries down on the counter. That should be everything she needed, right? She hit play on the video, staring into the screen for approximately three more seconds before the little hoof snapped out to pause it once again. Rice flour?? Aw man, now she’d have to go back to the store to pick up some rice! To mix with the flour, of course. Another quick trip to the grocery store had Princess and her rice/flour ready to go. What was next? Toppings! Princess nearly dashed out the door again before remembering the small strawberry bush growing outside her window. Perfect! At least she wouldn’t need a third trip to the store. Snatching up some strawberries, Princess pranced her way back to the kitchen. It was time to really get started. For real. Right?

Not quite. There was one last thing she needed. A dango stick. The kitchen goods store was all the way across town, it would take her almost an entire day to get there and back. There was no chance she was going tonight. Yet Princess still refused to give up hope, the promise of pink pups too sweet to let go. It didn’t take long for her to find a solution of her very own. A hairpin! She had a whole bunch scattered across her apartment, it wasn’t as easy as it looked to keep those bows in place. Princess had no doubt in her improvised solution, and finally got to work making her dango.

Roughly two hours later, an impressive dust cloud burst out of an apartment complex window near the center of Burrowgatory city. The loud pop was followed by a shrill squeal and a chorus of squeaks from several imps. 

Princess’ kitchen was a disaster. While she refused to believe the hairpin dango stick was the problem, clearly white wine was not a good substitute for water, and putting the concoction over an extra-high heat in order to ‘speed things up’ was maybe not her smartest idea. Not to mention the fact that her rice/flour looked nothing like the rice flour in the video. Clearly it was going to take more than a day in the kitchen to turn her pups pink. 

She sat among the remains of her project, wallowing for only a moment before glancing around at her harpups with a giggle. The whole room was covered in rice, flour, and wine, causing her usually dark harpups to turn a sticky white, chunks of strawberries making small trails down their smooth heads. In a way, she sort of succeeded!

Princess and her pups cleaned long into the night, before crashing into a much needed cuddle pile. They snoozed until late into the next afternoon, and by the time they awoke the pile had long since fallen apart. As she tumbled out of bed and began her daily beauty routine, Princess’ few thoughts floated toward the previous night’s incident. Creating dango was much more difficult than it looked. But if she couldn’t make it, perhaps she could simply buy it? To the bunternet!

It took no time at all for her to find the most popping dango shop in Burrowgatory, Dan’s Dango! Princess couldn’t stop herself from giggling at the name plastered across the large sign as she and her trail of harpups waddled toward the store. It should totally just be called Dan Go. Or Go Dan, to really mix things up! Silly names kept Princess giggling until she was far inside the store, causing her to nearly miss the stoic bun at the front counter.

“Can I help you…?”

Princess came to a sharp halt with a small squeak. Her imps didn’t get the message fast enough, sliding into one another like dominos and quickly piling up behind Princess until the momentum knocked her off her hooves and flat onto her fuzzy little face. Dan suddenly found himself greeted by an army of harpups, not a single bun to be seen. “Uh…”

Squirming her way out from underneath her pile of pets, Princess dusted herself off and gave the other bun a once-over. “Hi! Hi hi hi hi! You must be Dan….! go.” The last bit was whispered under her breath. Did he change his name after he started making dango? Or did he make dango because he was named Dan? With a quick shake of her head, Princess gestured wildly toward her pups. “I’m Princess, and this is… Pillow, Plushie, Puffball, Precious, Punchy, and Pinky!” The harpups perked up one by one as their names were called. They were still getting used to the titles, but no pup seemed displeased. “But we have a problem!!” Dan was clearly starting to lose patience, but Princess kept cutting him off just as he tried to speak. “Cause see, this is Pinky!” Princess reiterated, scooping up the harpup. “And she isn’t even pink!!” 

“So. You came to the Dango shop. To buy a dango.” Dan couldn’t fathom why this needed so much exposition, but Princess began furiously shaking her head. “Nuh-uh! I came to the dango shop…” She beamed up at the larger bun. “To learn how to make dango!”

“No.”

Dan squeezed his eyes shut, massaging his temple as he shook his head. It was true that he had recently been trying to find an apprentice, but it only took half a conversation for him to be certain this was not the bun he was looking for.

Princess refused to give up. This was her best idea yet, if she couldn’t make the dango herself she’d just have someone else teach her how! It wasn’t like she could afford six whole dango, anyway. Princess sucked in a large breath, before pouting her cheeks and looking at Dan with the saddest puppy-dog eyes any bun had ever been subject to, rivaling even the most pitiful of impups. “But… but how else will I turn them all pink…? Your dango skills… they’re my only hope! Please, Dan!” 

Even the sternest of buns would likely begin to crack under the Princess-level pressure. Dan sighed. Maybe he could find some sort of compromise. Anything to get her out of his shop, and he could already tell that ignoring her request would only make her stay even longer.

“...Fine. But only today. And only strawberry, nothing else.” Princess practically sparkled as she squeaked with delight, causing Dan to almost regret his decision seconds after he made it. “Oh golly thank you so very much!” Her mood had changed on a dime, she was practically vibrating with excitement. Dan couldn’t help thinking that she was far too energetic for a sloth bun. “I promise we will be the very best students you’ve ever taught!!” The mention of ‘we’ caused Dan a flash of panic before he realized she was only referring to her pup army. The last thing he needed was another high energy bun on his hooves. 

He walked over to his work station, casually picking up a wooden hammer and idly twirling it as he retrieved the ingredients. Princess’ eyes never left Dan as he silently prepared, causing him to look up several times to meet her stare with an awkward glance. At last the ingredients were prepared, so he set down his mallet and called over the princess. “Alright, you can-.”

But when he looked up that final time, there was no Princess and no pups. A large clatter jolted him out of his wishful thinking that it was all an elaborate hallucination, and he whipped around to find the pile of pups near the other side of the workroom. Not a moment later Princess popped out of the pile, triumphantly holding a hammer nearly twice her size. “I wanna use this one!”

Dan looked about ready to snap, but instead he just let out another long sigh and turned away from the mess. “We don’t need that for dango. And we have bun sized hammers, why are you-”

Before Dan could finish his question, Princess had waddled over to him with her prize, her eyes sparkling. “I wanna use THIS one.” There was no room for negotiation. Dan gave her a weak nod. 

He began crafting the dough, giving only a few words to his rapt audience for each step. Princess did her best to follow along, slowly mixing her much smaller portion of dough into a clumpy concoction. As Dan spread his smooth paste out on the worktable, Princess dumped her bowl of questionable substance beside it. Before he could open his mouth, Princess had lifted her massive hammer high over her head, ready to begin pounding. “NO-” 

Centimeters before the hammer would have smashed the poor bun-sized table in two, Dan managed to halt the momentum, using all his strength to protect his shop. But damn, that girl was strong. Princess didn’t resist as the hammer was plucked from her hooves and hustled back over to the wall where it belonged. Looking up at the hammer's doll-sized wall hanging, Dan couldn’t fathom how the fiery bun had gotten it down in the first place. He left it on the floor to deal with later. 

When he returned to the work station, Princess was making small talk with her harpups, the imps squeaking in response. Her head snapped up at Dan’s arrival. “Hi!! What’s next?” 

Dan looked her dead in the eye. “Nothing. Not for you.” Princess’ constant grin began to fade. Dan sighed again, he wasn’t ready for another round of the puppy-dog eyes just yet. “Sit down. Just… watch.”

Princess did as instructed, her mildly vacant smile plastered back over her features. Her harpups followed suit, plopping themselves down in a small semi circle around their bun. Dan squeezed his eyes shut for a second, regaining his bearings before continuing his craft. He stayed mostly silent as he completed the sweet dango. (Princess’ previous concoction had begun to bubble slightly. Dan diligently ignored it.)

With a few final words on proper rolling techniques, Dan held up his completed dango. Not the best strawberry dango he had made by far, but looking at the mess on the other side of the table made Dan feel a lot better about his skills. Princess began clapping rapidly as she laid eyes on the perfectly pink prize, her harpups taking a moment to follow suit. Dan couldn’t help a small grin at the applause. It had never hurt to have his work appreciated. 

“Alright, that’s enough for today.” Dan announced. Princess sprung off the ground, eyes sparkling once more. “Ah! Thank you for the demonstration, Mr. Dango!” Whoopsies, she’d forgotten to whisper the ‘go’ that time. “Mister, dango just looks so very pretty!” Smooth cover up, Princess. She beamed at the stoic bun as he ushered his unwanted guests back to the front of the store, only giving her a nod in agreement..

As they neared the entrance, Princess spun back around, twirling in front of Dan. “Thank you so very much for your lesson! I will take it all to my heart!” Her pups squeaked in agreement, but the chances of Princess remembering a single word Dan had said by the next morning were quite low. 

“Hope so. Come again next time you’ve got carats.” Hardly able to believe he had just invited this particular bun to return, Dan gave her a small wave with the pink dango he’d made as she finally walked back out the door. He looked at the dango, and looked at the bun, and looked back at the dango. “Wait!” Princess twirled around once more, her ribbons fluttering gracefully. “Just- take this.” Dan shoved the dango into the smaller bun’s hooves before spinning on his heel and marching back into his shop. 

Princess gasped, looking from the dango to Dan, just as he had done moments earlier. “Ah! Thank you! Thank you, thank you!” She clutched the dango tightly,  grinning from ear to ear as she watched the bun disappear back into his shop. It seemed he could be rather nice after all!

As Princess and her parade of pups flounced their way home, she couldn’t stop thinking about her new friend. It was always so much fun to meet the buns of Burrowgatory! And now Pinky could finally be pink, as it was destined to be! Delighted by her success, Princess chose to push thoughts of coloring the other five harpups out of her mind for the moment. That would be a bridge she would cross on another day, and while she was certain she’d eventually cross it, she had already won one battle today. For now, it was time for a well deserved nap.