‘Ding!’
A small timer shaped like a tomato made quite a noise. Twilight Sparkle perked up at the sound. Leaving her microscope behind, she quickly trotted across the small windowless chamber. Her thick lab journal floated after her, supported by her magic. Her hoofsteps were muffled by a layer of thick rubber covering her legs. Not a glimpse of her body, mane or tail could be seen because of the protective coveralls. Her happy squeak was muffled by a rebreather.
Most ponies would balk at the mere sight of such a costume. Some, like the flower trio or Rarity might even faint. Twilight herself wasn’t really happy with her circumstances: it was awfully hot and restrictive. According to the instructions, she was not allowed to work for more than two hours while wearing one of these. But she was willing to bear with it if it meant that she could conduct her study in relative safety.
“A-aand… Done!” Twilight said to herself as she stopped before a small stove and turned it off. Her quill zipped through the air, writing down the exact time of her actions. The princess lifted a lid from a small pot. Very carefully Twilight lifted a bouquet of flowers from the liquid. The petals were almost brown and couldn’t keep their original shape after a treatment they had received. The pony paid no mind to the beauty she had to ruin in the name of science. Twilight made sure to squeeze all the water out of the plants before discarding the remains into a special container. She couldn’t help but grin under her protective mask as she observed the results of her work: the hot concoction inside the pot was of a potent blue color. Not something easily found in nature, indeed.
“Can’t wait to see what you’re capable of…” Twilight murmured and then giggled at herself. After all the friendships she has made she was able to look at her old habits from a new angle. Talking to herself after a long period of solitary work wasn’t anything new. She just found the concept a lot more amusing. Twilight glanced at the timer. She had almost thirty minutes left before her mandatory break. Maybe she should go out for lunch this time… Meet her friends if they weren’t busy.
“Twilight!!!” a muffled scream could be heard from the hallway. Twilight invested into many, many levels of safety measures for her lab, but soundproofing didn’t made the list.
“Huh?”
“TWILIGHT!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her lungs as she burst through the doors at top speed. The sound of handles smashing into the walls almost made the alicorn jump “Quick! The giant horned platypus is on a rampage near the school! Pinkie is holding it back with her cannon, but we need you NOW!”
Twilight had somewhat of a reputation for planning ahead. She predicted that somepony might try to break into her lab at the worst possible moment. She also knew that, when working with dangerous substances, one must invest into decontamination. When Dash flew through the door she got into a protective bubble of purple magic. She designed it so nopony could enter without a proper protection or get out without getting clean first. What she didn’t expect was the amount of power a certain somepony might apply.
Rainbow was contained inside the bubble all right, but she stretched it to a limit the princess thought unreachable. Hovering near her friend the pegasus shook her by the shoulders. Shocked, Twilight lost her concentration and hit the pot in front of her with her journal. A little amount of blue concoction splashed out, getting onto Twilight’s sleeve, the stove and floor. Both friends froze, looking at each other with wide eyes, the only sound present being Rainbow’s furious wing beats.
“Eh… What are you wearing?” Dash muttered and rubbed the back of her head. Twilight shocked expression morphed into the one of seething fury. Good thing that it was hard to make out behind her rebreather.
After a tiny pause to calm herself, Twilight growled “The giant what?! Dash, if this is one of your pranks, Celestia help me…”
Starlight Glimmer ran in, her look of agitation morphing into a dull confusion as she saw just how far Rainbow managed to push. A brief glimpse into her eyes told the princess more than enough. With one swing of her horn she grabbed the potion bowl and shoved it into the protective cabinet at the far end of her lab. Trays with dry leaves and petals lifted off from her worktable and followed suit. Rainbow watched their flight, fascinated how quickly the objects changed their trajectories. Her lapse in concentration allowed Twilight’s protective bubble to come out on top in the prolonged struggle. The pegasus yelped loudly as she got catapulted towards the entrance by a stretched magical barrier.
“I’m coming! Dash, wait, this is dangerous! Starlight! Help me to wash!” the alicorn switched into her command mode as she locked up the dangerous materials. She galloped across the small lab and was waiting within the bubble with her hoof up before other mares could say a word. Starlight blinked and lit up her horn, picking up a hose from the rack near the entrance. While the unicorn set it up Twilight grabbed two big washbowls and stepped into one, placing Rainbow Dash into the other with her magic.
“Hey! What gives?!”
Her question was left unanswered as Starlight turned the lever. A stream of moderately warm water hit both mares. Dash yelped in protest while Twilight turned, letting the water wash her from all angles. She could barely feel it through her protective suit, but it was a comforting thought that any small particles of poison that she might have missed were now off of her. The water was trapped inside the bubble, so her lab was safe from the waterworks.
“Hey! HEY! Quit it!”
“Okay, I think that’s enough.”
As soon as Starlight stopped watering both of them, Twilight started to disrobe. Normally she wouldn’t be eager to do so in front of other ponies, even if they were all mares, but this was hardly the time for silly things, like preserving her modesty. Ponyville needed her, and she couldn’t run around in a protective suit. It still could be contaminated. Truth be told, she wouldn’t be able to run in it, period. She was reasonably fit, but not enough to endure the torture that even the Royal Guard used sparingly. Throwing off her hood, rebreather and goggles Twilight quickly untied and unbuckled the upper part of her suit, which left her with the worst part. The leggings. All four of them, thigh-high, bulging out at the hoof but still tight enough further up to give ponies some weird ideas.
Unwilling to waste any more time, Twilight yanked herself out of the damn things with her magic, landing nearby and starting to dry herself off with a towel Starlight gave to her. As she did so, she noticed that Dash quickly turned to look the other way. Just like a pony who stared would do. The princess barely resisted a groan.
“What was that all about? Now my wings are all soaked up!” Dash complained. Twilight embraced the distraction.
“Poison joke. In case some of the dust stayed on my suit and got onto you. Here, let me help you.”
Rainbow flinched as a stream of hot air hit her, guided by Twilight’s horn. In a few moments the pegasus was dry, her mane looking like some of Pinkie Pie’s party supplies exploded on the top of her head.
“There, nice and dry. Let’s go, Rainbow!” Twilight turned her head towards her pupil “Starlight! We’ll take care of the creature. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to stay here and decontaminate the lab as quickly as possible.”
The unicorn nodded sharply in return. She couldn’t help but scrunch her nose as Rainbow Dash trotted past her with her natural disaster of a mane.
“What? What’s so funny?” Rainbow asked as Starlight tried to stifle her giggles futilely.
“Hurry up, Rainbow!” Twilight yelled, breaking into a run towards the main chamber. Dash perked up and followed suit.
+++
*a few hours later*
Rainbow Dash huffed as she surfaced from the spa pool.
“I admit that this is nice after the fight with a big, mean monster… But what’s with you dragging us all here at top speed, Twilight? And all that spraying from Starlight earlier…” Rainbow fidgeted her wings before giving her friend a cocky grin “One might assume you like me with my mane wet.”
Twilight groaned in frustration. She didn’t facehoof only because she didn’t want to spray water with a cure solution in it into her eyes. Merry giggling of Pinkie Pie and AJ’s obvious efforts to hold back laughter were not helpful.
“Dash! Must you be so crass? Dear Twilight is simply embracing the finest things in life, and, I must say, I completely approve! Her eagerness is understandable. And have you broken into my workplace in your usual fashion whilst I was in the zone… I don’t know, darling, I’d probably be upset, too!” Rarity scolded the pegasus while sagging as deep into the warm water as she could while keeping her face above.
“I was experimenting with Poison Joke.”
Everypony went quiet. All eyes were on her in an instant, a mute question easy to read on her friend’s faces. Twilight sighed and continued.
“I’ve met a rather well-known botanist a month before. He was conducting a research into rare plants with magical properties, but got unlucky on his way back from the Everfree. His project was held back dramatically because of his run-in with Poison Joke. Nopony would even tell me what exactly the flowers did to him, but it sounded really, really bad. Since then I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. We know so little about this plant. If we could understand how it works exactly we might be able to develop a proper counter-measure instead of a cure. Who knows, maybe we could even use it for something good…”
Applejack and Rarity exchanged skeptical looks. Pinkie Pie seemed to have no concerns on the matter, though.
“As long as your horn is doing okay, Twilight!” the pink pony smiled earnestly.
“Thank you, Pinkie” the princess smiled back. The support meant a lot her, more than she cared to admit. Even if Pinkie knew nothing about magic or potions.
Slowly but surely they got back to small talk and relaxation. Twilight tried to do so as well, but a nagging thought kept bothering her. There was something missing, but she couldn’t quite put her hoof on it. Then, she realized. Fluttershy sat right by her side but gave almost no reaction to her story, compared to how animated the rest of the ponies got when the poisonous magical plant got mentioned.
“Is everything alright, Fluttershy?”
“Oh? Um, I’m fine, Twilight, thank you” the pegasus answered curtly, giving her a tiny smile that disappeared almost instantly.
“Are you sure? You seem awfully distracted…”
Fluttershy blinked. She seemed to actually think of a proper answer this time.
“Yes, Twilight. I’m just upset that my plans for the day got squandered… Not that I mind helping you out or spending time at the spa, of course!”
Twilight smiled reassuringly at her friend’s remark and was pleasantly surprised when the pegasus gave her an honest, playful smile back.
“Especially since it’s your treat…”
The princess giggled outright at the remark. Fluttershy, admitting that she liked to get stuff for free? Well, somepony was making progress!
“Say, Twilight. Shining is probably bored all by himself. The guy really threw himself in harm’s way while I was fetching you. You should let him join us next time.”
Pinkie Pie went into a new giggling fit, this one louder than the former. Applejack raised an eyebrow. An image of her brother resting in the same bath as all the mares around immediately popped inside Twilight’s mind. She widened her eyes and was about to respond, but inhaled a little bit of water out of surprise. Poor alicorn coughed and hacked profusely, earning a few sympathetic looks from her friends. Fluttershy gave Twilight a gentle rub on the back.
“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity was staring daggers at the blue pegasus.
“What? You can cover his eyes with cucumbers as you did with Spike if you don’t want him to stare too much” Dash answered with a coy smile.
“He is married!”
“I didn’t have anything naughty in mind. Did you?” the pegasus teased.
“Why, you…”
“Please, everypony. Don’t take it close to heart” Fluttershy intervened, her voice soft, but even. She stood up and raised a wing out of the water to get other mares’ attention.
Twilight looked up at her usually quiet friend with surprise. Fluttershy was never a fan of squabbles, but she was usually not the type to put herself between the arguing sides. Yet here she was, standing tall and resolute. Twilight couldn’t help but smile proudly. When she came to Ponyville for the first time, Fluttershy was known to hunch a lot, trying her best to look smaller. She improved considerably, whenever her newfound courage or Rarity’s pestering on the subject of good posture to blame.
Fluttershy met her look and then immediately broke contact, addressing nopony in particular “One of our former classmates is getting married. Dash always gets restless at such news.”
“Oh! Darling! Who’s the lucky pony?” Rarity perked up and grinned widely, no longer paying Rainbow any mind.
“No, I’m not!”
“Hush! So, dear, you were saying…”
Everypony looked at Fluttershy expectantly as she slowly settled back at her place near Twilight. Everypony except Dash, who crossed her forehooves and looked away, bemused.
“it’s Dumbbell. He met somepony at work, if I got it correctly.”
“Oh…” Rarity deflated a bit as she heard the name “How did you found out, exactly?”
“From his mother. She is a very nice mare who used to invite the entire class to pretty much any party there was. She wrote to both of us.”
“So-oo… Are you two attending?” Rarity asked, looking unsure. On one hoof, who would pass at the chance to be a wedding guest? But, then again, that colt was a complete bully if the stories she heard were true.
“Of course NOT!” Rainbow threw her fore hooves up for emphasis while Fluttershy merely shook her head “We don’t want to see him! And why would his wedding affect me in any way, Shy?”
Yellow pegasus blinked in surprise before giving her friend and exasperated look.
“You don’t like sex jokes, Rainbow. Everypony knows this. Yet, should one of our classmates announce a wedding you immediately start being naughty.”
“I’ll be back in a moment, girls” Twilight said as she climbed out of the bath. Rainbow had a point, she wanted to check up on her big brother. And the talk the rest of her friends were having was not her cup of tea, anyway.
“So, other folks’ wedding get yer feathers ruffled? Upset you didn’t win that race, eh, Dash?” Applejack teased, making Twilight flinch on the inside. She knew that both tomboys liked to tease each other, but this was getting too far for her tastes. She hurried to dry herself up with a towel and get her bathrobe.
“Just you wait, Applebutt! If I marry the best guy, I still win!”
“Darlings!” Rarity gasped, horrified “That is certainly not a race to win!”
“We-eee! Can I be your best mare, Dashie?”
Twilight glanced over her shoulder before leaving. Fluttershy sat amidst the argument, a calm and serene smile not leaving her face.