The Revenge of Dr. Negative

~~~~~Warehouse 42, East Side Docks~~~~~

The Warehouse 42 office was an absolute chaotic mess. It was incredibly clear that nopony had bothered to organize anything in it for months. Boxes upon boxes of documents were stacked against every wall, trash cans sat stuffed with paper debris and what few desks could be seen under piles and piles of unfilled paperwork were strewn with used coffee cups, quill shavings and various other bits of detritus. Naturally, Rainbow Dash felt right at home in this kind of environment - it reminded her of the weather-control offices back in Ponyville, which looked pretty much just like this, unless there was some kind of inspection about to happen.

Of course, Dash knew that this place was practically the antithesis of how Twilight usually did things. It was so against her grain, that Dash was not at all surprised to find both Twilight and Rosetta staring at the chaos with near-on identical eye twitches. Right, time to work fast! "Hey, let's go start rummaging through all those boxes and crates and stuff, eh guys?!" She proclaimed in her loudest voice - spreading wings and hooves and herding the rest of their gang - Solaris, Celestia, and Daring Do - out of the office as quickly as she could manage with two Alicorns and one adventuring legend. Luckily for her, Scooter and Applebloom were still outside - watching the car, they'd said. They got out of the office just in time, as Twilight said in her most firm tone of voice. "Right. I'll handle the left half.." And the rest was cut off by a slamming office door, followed by the sounds of massive amounts of paper shifting around the room.

Rainbow Dash wiped away a bit of sweat from her brow and let out a relieved sigh. "Remind me to never walk into a messy library with both of them around." She quipped softly. "I have a feeling they could probably re-shelve the entire Canterlot library by themselves." Dash continued just a little faintly - which got a rather amused smile from the Alicorns and a solemn nod of understanding from Daring. "Okay - so they'll handle the paperwork side. Daring, you know more about this Doctor Negative guy than any of us, so I think we oughta follow your lead. What should we be looking for?" Dash gently crossed her hooves over her chest as she took to the air - hovering a foot or two above the ground.

Daring paused for a moment to take in the fact that Dash had just done a runaround on the bucking rulers of the country before responding. "Okay - the last time all of this went down, the Doc was trying to create some kind of chemical formula that would let him basically control ponies minds. He made a lot of mistakes, and his earliest attempts just all turned into mindless zombies he ordered around - or more often, simply pointed in the direction he wanted destroyed." She frowned, looking around her. "Rosie said he was trying to build some kind of teleporter now, but I doubt that he's given up on his dreams of mind control. We oughta be looking for chemicals and chemistry equipment - and anything else that's really weird and out there." She paused and shrugged. "I know that's not super specific, but it might give us a clue as to where he's hiding out, or what he's up to with your friend."

Dash nodded, and before she knew it the two Alicorns were trotting off into the warehouse - and once they were out of sight, Dash let off a hefty sigh of relief. "Sheesh, and I thought Princess Celestia back home made me nervy." She grumbled out, and caught an amused grin from Daring. "Yeah yeah, laugh it up." She grumbled softly and flitted over towards the first stack of boxes, eyeballing the arcane stamp on the side Dash decided the level headed thing to do was to just open boxes until something useful fell out.

Just as she was acquiring the services of Mister Crowbar.to that end, Daring's voice popped up. "Hey Dash, I got a question for you." She half yelled - apparently stuck halfway in a large wooden crate for a moment before her head popped out covered in floppy hats. Dash grunted, hiding her amused grin as she levered the thin tip of the crowbar under a crate lid. Daring continued to talk as she dug through the floppy hats, "What would you do if you knew somepony was in love with you, but they just didn't say anything about it?"

Dash very nearly dropped the crowbar in surprise at that question, but quickly recovered - levering up the crate lid to find what looked like stacks upon stacks of steamy romance novels. How incredibly ironic. She thought wryly, slamming the lid shut and giving off an audible "Hmmmmmm." to stall for time. "Well, I mean... That's a tough one right there, especially if they're somepony you already know. I mean - if it's just some random pony, I'd probably try to shoo 'em off. But if it's a friend... whoof." She let out a burst of air from her cheeks. "You gotta be careful there."

Daring blinked up at her as she opened a second and third crate, obviously finding nothing of interest. "What do ya mean?" She quipped, leaning against one of the crates - and very clearly more concerned about this question than she was about searching the warehouse. Rainbow Dash cast her an irritated look, but honestly couldn't blame her. Nopony was going to cause a problem here with the Princess around.

So Rainbow Dash sighed and leaned against her own crate. "Look, this is just me, okay? I care about my friends. A lot. Like, even more than most ponies." She said very firmly, trying to get her feelings across without sounding like she was trying to hide anything. "There have been times when I really screwed up on that - but when it comes to somepony's heart? Especially if they're really, seriously, goo-goo eyes in love? Screwing up with that..." She shook her head. "It could get real ugly, real fast if you're not super careful about it."

Dash looked away and sighed expressively. "I'm no expert on love, but I don't think I could forgive myself if I broke somepony's heart on purpose." She muttered softly, shuffling her hooves in place. "It's one thing to mess up and hurt a friend - that stuff happens sometimes, and good friends grow into better friends because of it. It's a whole 'nother to... well, you get the point." She waved her hoof airily. "You want my advice? I'd figure out how I felt about that pony first. If I didn't love them back, well..." She sighed. "That's complicated. I don't honestly know what I'd do there."

Daring nodded once. "Yeah. That kind of thing is... well, I'd personally rather deal with some ancient spike trap. Less hazardous to your health." She grinned slyly, then went back to rummaging about in the crates. Dash, who couldn't honestly disagree with her assessment, did the same.

She would worry about Twilight later.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Lord Solaris had a problem - a very big one, it seemed. "Solly, we simply must think of a way to convince them to stay!" Celestia enthused, her eyes brighter than he had ever seen them in nearly a thousand years. "They are not merely perfect for their elements, they're wonderful ponies too. Solly please, I do not wish them any ill - but they simply must stay." She plead and begged of him, her eyes going watery in the kind of way that suggested she was about to cry. She wasn't going to, of course - Solaris knew Celestia's tactics well by this point in his life, but to be honest it wasn't the tactics that were bothering him.

It was an undercurrent of desperate need and sincerity that bothered him. He strongly suspected it was not Rainbow Dash she was speaking of when she say 'they' or 'them'. It was the young Twilight Sparkle - the living embodiment of Magic, and perhaps even worse - a perfect student to match Celestia's perfect teacher. They had fit together like a pair of clock gears - they complimented one another, even as they fed off one another's intellects. "Celly... Did you not hear me? They are both already Element Bearers in their own world. Do you truly propose we deny another world their protection?" He tried once again, vainly hoping that Celestia would give ground to the logic.

To no avail, of course. "Solaris - you are being silly. The Elements, once awakened, will find appropriate bearers." Celestia insisted with a huff. "It is not in their nature to lie dormant. The only reason ours have is... well, you already know the last use to which we put them. A use which was wholly inappropriate." She sighed softly, and so did he. The two of them bowed their heads for a moment in remembrance of those mistakes, before shaking off the gloom. "Solly, we have spent the past century searching for even just one potential Element Bearer - now, potentially three of them have fallen into our laps. This must be fate, and we must not waste this opportunity!"

Solaris pinched at his snout for a moment, hoping that the small headache he was beginning to get wouldn't grow into something monumental. There was no point in arguing this with Celestia, not in the mood she was in now. "Let's focus on finding their friend, Celly. We won't be able to convince them of much until we do." He pointed out with his usual ruthless logic, and luckily Celestia seemed to be satisfied with her momentary victory. The pair of them trotted off deeper into the warehouse... when a very painful, but very probable thought suddenly occurred to Solaris. One that he wished he hadn't thought, since his stupid mouth decided to open up at that very moment and give voice to it. "Celestia, you don't have... feelings for Twilight Sparkle, do you?"

Celestia very pointedly did not say a word, her horn lighting up to lever open the lids to crates - but Solaris could see a very faint, if well hidden blush on her cheeks. Oh, that's just *perfect.*** he thought gloomily.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The flurry of papers throughout the room was much like standing in the middle of a very warm snowstorm. Two unicorns, each of whom was rather skilled in the art of 'pushing' paper around an office went to town on the disorganized clutter. "We don't have infinite time - let's sort by date." Twilight said firmly, as a giant bag of old coffee cups went sailing out the office door. "We can figure anything within the last three months is probably relevant to our needs. Collate and file everything else by month name."

"Mm, yes, that's logical." Rosetta replied absently - leaving the voluminous paperwork to Twilight while she focused on putting the office to rights so they could make use of it. She did give a little hoof of assistance towards the collating though, since that was mostly boxing up the papers by month name. "We don’t have enough boxes... Let me stack them, you focus on getting everything separated." She admonished and went to work on that chore - straightening the paper stacks they weren't going to use, while casting a long look at Twilight. Should I? she half wondered, then scolded herself. What have you got to lose?

"Twilight?" Rosetta ventured, and Twilight turned a curious look towards her. "Um. Could you help me with a little problem?" She asked, doing her best to hide her blushing cheeks in the flying paperwork. Twilight made a noise of assent - something like an 'mmhm.' The preliminary awkwardness out of the way, Rosetta sucked in a breath and just... went for it. She'll understand. We're the same pony, just lots of different experiences.  "Well... what would you do, if you were in love with somepony and you couldn't figure out how to tell them that?"

There was a sudden thud of a stack of papers missing a desk and hitting the edge, before a flurry of energy gathered them back up again. Twilight gave off an unconvincing cough, obviously trying to cover the shock of the question. "Um, that's an awfully specific thing to ask, Rosetta." Twilight said slowly, obviously mulling over the information she'd just received. "I suppose I'd need more data than that to give you a real answer." She concluded after a few minutes, finishing stacking another set of papers on a desk for examination.

Rosetta exhaled, then trotted across the much cleaner floor - much of the dust swept into a corner and bagged for removal. "Daring." She said quietly, and Twilight blinked in astonishment at her. "I know, I know... She's completely not my type! She's brash and danger-hungry and she can be so bloody thoughtless sometimes!" Rosetta stomped her hoof, glaring at the pile of paper nearby. "But nopony else has stuck by me like she has. Nopony else has saved my life like she has. She's the pony I'm closest to in all the world... she's not perfect, but every time I see her push herself to her utmost limits, she makes me feel like I could do it too." Rosetta's words came out in a rush, as she tried purposefully to suppress her blushing cheeks and failing miserably at it.

Twilight was half staring at her - as though she was trying to process all of it. Rosetta kept speaking, relying on momentum and desperation to keep her talking before her courage ran dry. "When she came home with Silver... I admit it, I lost my temper with her. I got incredibly angry and sad and... and I realized how much she had come to mean to me. It wasn't just some infatuation, or crush, or friendship like I'd told myself countless times before." Rosetta sucked in a deep breath and smacked her forehead against the desk. "When I found out that Silver had been kidnapped, I felt equal parts elated and disgusted with myself. I wanted Daring to be happy, but...." She petered out, unable to keep it going any longer - Much more and she'd be reduced to tears, and there would be no way to hide that from the others.

Twilight gently touched her shoulder. "Then I would tell her." Twilight said, oh-so-softly. "As soon as there's an appropriate moment. Take her aside - I'll keep Dash and the Princess occupied - and tell her. The only way to find out if it's worth pursuing is to try." Rosetta looked up to see Twilight smiling softly down at her. "I'll be there for you if you need me, too."

Rosetta exhaled softly and nodded. "Thank you Twilight." She said with a gentle smile of her own. "And in return, I promise to be there to help you with your own love issues." She said with a wry smile - and much to her surprise, Twilight froze up again. Rosetta frowned a little. "Was I amiss? I thought it was rather obvious that Rainbow Dash was very much in love with you." Twilight made a noise that sounded like a strangled squeak, even as Rosetta kept speaking. "I mean, really. The way she was looking at you, the way she followed your words, the way she put herself into danger for your own well-being... It's very much precisely what Daring so often does for me, which is why I thought she loved me for so very long."

Twilight let out a strangled sound - like a cat getting its tail stepped on, but Rosetta pretended not to notice as she hopped up in a chair and started sifting through the paperwork. "Regardless, you ought to talk to her about it, Twilght." She paused and set the papers down for a moment, her voice dropping low. "Especially if you might share some of those feelings... before it’s far too late for either of you to say anything." She continued quietly, then began to sort through the papers while Twilight processed all of that information.

Hopefully, she wouldn't be offended. Hopefully.