For the twenty-seventh time Twilight lifted a hoof and brought it down onto the bright red button that should start up the automatic potion brewing machine which, in theory, can make any potion given the correct ingredients. All she wanted was for this Celestial forsaken machine to work! It started to jump to life with a loud hum that ment it was working started coming from the machine. "Yes!" she yelled loud enough for Spike to fall off of the ladder he was currently using to re-shelve books. All she needed was to flip the switch and... *BOOM* *SNAP* Twilight sighed as the sound of the machine fizzed out.
"Not again, this is the third time I have got my hopes up like this," she murmured to nopony in particular.
She started to walk around the machine to see what went wrong this time and as she said something was OK Spike would check it off of the checklist, checking and double-checking if it was broken.
"Ughhhh!" Twilight nearly screamed as she saw they were out of every last picometer of plutonium.
You see, pure plutonium, with no impurities, is needed to power the machine and not just anypony has spare plutonium just lying around their house. Twilight immediately started packing an entire sack full of bits as a metal as rare as pure plutonium is only found at the rare metals and alloys shop in Canterlot, and it is not exactly cheap either. She ran outside and got a train ride to Canterlot. On the train she tried to remember the way to the metals and alloys shop from the train station. She thought she remembered it being take a left after you pass the "Canterlot Spa" and keep going until you see the first bed and breakfast that you come across, turn right from there, and after about half a mile it is right there. When she looked up she realized it was her stop. On the way to the metals and alloys shop she came across three rather shady ponies on the bad side of town who jumped her and in panic she rapidly teleported away and landed on the roof of some guy's shop. Luckily she didn't break the roof and have to pay for it. When she got to the metal and alloy shop she bought all of the plutonium they had in stock. The shop owner was rather surprised at this request but he obliged getting out almost twenty pounds of plutonium and asking if Twilight would like that gift wrapped or not. When she was walking back she stopped by a restraint for a dinner of a daisy sandwich and hayfries. On the train ride back she watched the sun set and relaxed. After that trip it was dark out and Spike was already asleep.
"Just one more try before I go to sleep," Twilight said to herself. She carefully loaded the plutonium into a chamber where it would be producing enough energy to power all of Equestria for a year in seconds. She pressed the button. The machine whirred to life. And with just the flip of a switch it came on.
Twilight shut down the machine and started to walk up the stairs, joyous that the machine she had been working on since sunrise had finally worked. As she walked up the stairs she contemplated what she would use it for tommarow. Maybe she would try to use it to create a potion that normally took weeks to create, the invisibility potion, in just a few minutes.
"No, that requires exotic ingredients that can only be found past the edge of Equestria, and I do not plan on taking that long of a trip tommarow. Oh well, I'll think about it in the morning" Twilight said to herself.
"Twilight! You have a visitor" Spike yelled. Twilight jumped out of bed.
"Oh no," she grumbled "the library is a mess from my project yesterday."
When she got downstairs she saw who was there. "Rainbow!" Twilight said "what brings you here?"
"Umm... Well you see I was sort of checking if you have an extra copy of the latest Daring Do book, because I dropped mine while I was reading on the branch of the tree that hangs over the river..." she said "but it looks like you have other egghead stuff going on."
"No, it's fine," Twilight said.
Rainbow than ran over to the machine and said, "What does this huge chunk of metal do?"
Twilight started to explain what it is and how it works but Rainbow quickly interrupted with "Blah, blah, blah, big egghead potion making thingie is all I needed."
"OK" Twilight said "Do you want to see how it works?"
"Yes!" Rainbow said.
"What kind of potion do you want it to make?" Twilight asked.
"An invisibility potion!" Rainbow blurted out.
"Unless you know someone who has extra dried leaves of a tree that is only found ten days walking distance from the western edge of Equestria, I can't help you."
"Oh well. Are you sure that Zecora doesn't have any?" Rainbow questioned.
"Oh! I actually haven't!" Twilight exclaimed "Let's go down there right now!"
"Sorry," Zecora said "but the only leaves of that brand," "are over there still drying in the sand."
"If you are willing to sit and wait," "You may get those leaves on this date."
"Sounds good to me! As long as I get my potion I'll be good." said Rainbow.
"Wait a second, who said this was for you?" Twilight said "I thought you just wanted to see the machine work!"
"Yes but... Wouldn't it be so cool to be invisible!" said Rainbow.
"If you just wanted to be invisible you should have told me!" said Twilight "I have a spell for that!"
"You do?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes." Twilight sighed. "Oh well, the potion goes in my personal stock, and next time just ask, Rainbow."
"The leaves are now dry" said Zecora "I think it is time to say goodbye."
They had finally loaded all of the ingredients when Twilight went over to press the button.
On her way Rainbow asked "How long will this take?"
"Only a few minutes." Twilight awnsered. She pressed the button, flipped the switch and it began to make noises starting with a hum, than loud grinding sounds and than a clatter of glass as a test tube spewed out a clear liquid that looked like water.
"It worked!" Twilight nearly yelled.
Then Rainbow said "So, how about that copy of the latest Daring Do book? And that invisibility spell?"
"Sure," Twilight said. Then she cast the invisibility spell and then brought down the book from the library with her magic and set it on the floor. It then started floating and the door opened then closed. Twilight was too busy recording the exact proses the machine went through to realize what problems she could have just created by putting Rainbow under that invisibility spell.
