The following morning, Twilight woke up refreshed. "Time to start the day," she said to herself as she got out of bed. She walked out of her chambers and into the long, narrow corridor that led to her office. Once inside, she glanced at her schedule, which was hanging on the wall beside her desk. Upon seeing its contents, she gasped.

"My day was supposed to start an hour ago!" Twilight moaned. "And I'm not free again until supper! I'm not going to have time to continue the experiment today, after all!" She flopped down on the floor in dismay before coming to a startling realization.

"Wait, if my day was supposed to start a full hour ago, then maybe there's still time to call in sick! Ponies will be able to clarify that I was late for some of my meetings, which will prove my statement!" Twilight was astonished by her own deviousness, but she didn't have time to revel in her own twisted mind. She cast a voice modulating spell on herself before picking up the office phone that sat on her desk.

"Hello, Prinshesh Sheleshtia?" Twilight's spell made her voice sound super congested, which was what she needed for what she was about to do.

"Larry? I told you not to call this number anymore!" Celestia shouted into the phone. "I told you that we're through and I meant it!"

"Thish ishn't Larry, Prinshesh," Twilight replied. "Thish ish Twilight Shparkle."

"Oh." Twilight could practically feel Celestia blushing as she said this. "What's the matter, Twilight? You sound sick."

"I am shick, Prinshesh," Twilight groaned. "I don't think I can shome to work today."

"Oh, that's too bad. Don't worry, you get some rest, and I'll call all of your appointments and let them know what happened." Celestia sounded deeply concerned.

"Blesh you, Sheleshtia." Twilight said.

"You're the one that should probably be blessed, Twilight." Celestia said this last part with a giggle. "I have to run now, Twilight. I have quite a few calls to make now." And with that, the line went dead.

The moment Twilight heard the telltale beep, she cast the spell off of herself. "Now that that's out of the way..." she murmered to herself.

She made her way back to her bedroom, where she had all of her notes from the previous night. Just as she was about to begin forming her hypothesis, there was a very loud knock on the palace door.

Groaning, Twilight made her way toward the door. Upon opening it, she let out a scream.

"Surprise!" Pinkie screamed.

"Pinkie Pie! What are you doing here?" Twilight screamed.

"Princess Celestia told me that you called in sick today, so I thought I'd come and bring you some soup! It's SOUP flavor. Your favorite!" Pinkie beamed up at Twilight.

Quickly doing damage control, Twilight cast the voice spell on herself again and messed up her hair a little bit. "Oh, yesh, Pinkie," Twilight moaned. "Thanksh sho mush for she shoup."

"No problem," Pinkie said. As she began to walk away, the pink-haired pony suddenly leaped up into the air, screaming "WAAAAIT!"

"What?" Twilight said. She tried to cover up the fact that her heart had just leaped up her throat, but felt that she was failing.

"You don't have the strength to eat that soup by yourself! You need someone to feed you!"

"I shan feed myshelf, Pinkie," Twilight replied.

"I don't believe you!" With that, Pinkie leaped at Twilight and shoved the soup violently down her friend's throat. Most of the soup spilled out of Twilight's forced open mouth, but a few small droplets found their way through.

"All done!" Pinkie cried cheerfully.

Meanwhile, Twilight was on the floor gagging. She had always secretly hated Pinkie's infamous soup-flavored soup, but up until that point had managed to keep it a secret. She hadn't been prepared for a surprise soup tasting, especially not a forced one.

"Well, gotta bounce! Hope you get better, Twilight!" And with that, the neon mare began to hop into the distance.

"Phew," Twilight sighed. "She didn't notice."

Twilight quickly shut and bolted the castle doors. She didn't want anypony else to think that the castle was open to the public.

She teleported to her office, and, at long last, cracked open her notes.

"What's a good hypothesis?" Twilight wondered to herself. After thinking for a long moment, she finally came up with one.

"I hypothesize that upon completing Starswirl the Bearded's lost work, I will be able to fully comprehend the meaning behind a fangirl moment." As she spoke to herself, Twilight wrote the hypothesis down on the final page of her notes. After doing this, she levitated her Scientific Method guide up and opened it up to step 4.

"Test Your Hypothesis," Twilight read aloud from the book. "This one might be harder. But I'm up for the challenge." She put the book away and pulled out Starswirl's notes. "But first, I have to fill in these missing facts with data from my own notes." She began comparing the two sets of notes, until, at long last, she found the answer to the missing variable.

"4! Of course! The answer was so simple, I was too smart to see it!" She leaped up and began flying around in circles. "I can't believe that I can start working on Starswirl the Bearded's lost invention now!"

As she landed, her legs began to wobble. "Or, maybe..." she began to feel a little faint. Her stomach was hurting. She hadn't eaten or drank anything all day. "It can wait till morning." With this, she collapsed into an exhausted, hungry heap on the cold castle floor.

Author's Note

This is a good trick to use if you want to get out of work for the day.

Hello? Who's this?
It's me. I can't make it to work today. I've got a cold.
Sorry to hear that. You just take it easy. (hangs up)
Suddenly, I feel a lot better!

Oh, boy! The pizza's here!