Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash headed downstairs to the kitchen/dining room (tucked in a back room of the lower library) leaving Spike to sleep in as the sun had only just risen. Twilight offered pancakes and the pegasus eagerly accepted. “Is it alright if I use your shower first, though?” she asked, having realized that falling asleep right after … what had happened didn’t exactly help somepony to wake up feeling daisy fresh.

“Oh,” Twilight blushed slightly, understanding the reason for the request. “Yeah, right in there,” she motioned to the next door over. “Towels are in the cupboard.” She turned away as her blush deepened at the thought of Rainbow in the shower. ‘But … why is that embarrassing?’ she wondered as she began to levitate flour, eggs and other ingredients for her intended morning confection. ‘It’s not like she’d be tied-eye-yaie-I am not finishing that thought.’

However, Twilight was not able to avoid the unfortunate truth about thoughts. The more one thought about not thinking them, the more the thinking mind thinks about the thought you wish to not be thunk. And the fact that she had a recent memory on which to draw further imagery from didn’t help. Twilight slammed her own head down against the counter with a force that would have startled anypony who’d seen her do it. This was partially from frustration but more in futile hopes she could induce short-term memory loss. The image she had of Rainbow Dash hogtied in the bathtub was decidedly not normal and she hated herself for having it emblazoned on the back of her star-spangled eyelids.

~~~~

Rainbow Dash stood just inside the bathroom for a minute, contemplating the workings of the land-shower that stood in Twilight’s bathroom. She knew that Earth Ponies and Unicorns couldn’t simply gather a sun-heated cloud for a real shower. However, knowing the difference existed was a far cry from actually experiencing the difference first-hoof.

The concept had seemed simple enough, ponies on land just stored and heated water on the ground and used pipes to bring the water to them. She just never expected that the contraption attached to the pipes on the tub would have so many knobs. Why the hay did they need FOUR knobs just to activate the water? Well … to be fair it was three knobs and some … switch looking thing. And of course nothing was labeled. Taking a shower should just be common sense.

She thought about asking Twilight for help, but her pride and independence squashed that option almost as quickly as it had presented itself. ‘You can figure this out Dashie’ she told herself, ‘All your friends deal with this thing every day. Just take it one step at a time.’

She started with the biggest knob, giving it a good quarter-turn. There was a small -thunk- in the drain, but no water. Rainbow tried turning it the other way, causing another -thunk- in the drain, but still no water. “Oh! That must be the plug for the bath,” she exclaimed. “Go figure.”

Next she tried the switch thing, but nothing seemed to happen. She flipped it several more times but the pipes didn’t seem to care about its position one way or another. Rainbow Dash gave a snort and glared at the contraption, almost willing it to do as she commanded. ‘Leave it to Twilight to make something complicated out of something simple.’

So with two-down and two-to-go she picked the knob on the right and gave it a quarter-turn. After a moment the shower head above began to spurt and splutter a pathetic trickle of water. It was progress, but hardly useful. ‘maybe the other one has a different source?’ she hoped and gave the left knob a quarter turn. The water-flow increased … marginally.

Fed up with the Celestia-forsaken contraption Rainbow Dash decided to buck her pride and get some help. She was sore, smelly, in desperate need of a shower, and her patience with the fake shower was done. “Hey, Twilight can I get some help in here?” she called out.

Twilight’s head was still embedded into the counter, though she’d managed to continue mixing the batter with her magic due to its simplicity. Upon hearing Rainbow’s ambiguous request her head snapped up and the mixing bowl dropped to the counter with a clatter. “WHAT!? … err … I mean … just a second,” she replied, glad that the thick batter hadn’t spilled.

Trotting to the bathroom door Twilight hesitated to open it. “Ummm … what’s wrong?” she asked, hoping she was only required for verbal assistance.

“Ummm … don’t tell anypony but … I don’t know how you get this to work,” Rainbow explained. “Is there some special magic you use to touch this with? It’s not coming like it should.”

Twilight stood outside the closed door, aghast. Had she really just been asked about- ‘No … no this HAS to be a misunderstanding.’ she thought. “W-w-what?” the unicorn stammered out, hoping some clarification would destroy this horribly disturbing fantas- … er … situation.

‘Oh great,’ thought Rainbow Dash, ‘now she thinks I’m silly for not knowing something this basic.’ “C’mon, Twilight, please don't make a big deal out of this,” she pleaded, “I’ve never done this before. Just get in here and show me once and I’ll never ask again. I promise.”

‘No,’ she thought, ‘there’s just just … no. She can’t possibly be serious.’ Yet even as she thought to deny, reject, and rebuff the request; Twilight found her hoof reaching for the door handle all of its own volition. ‘No,’ she told herself, ‘Spike is just upstairs and he could wake up any minute now.’ Still … though the thought was immediately abhorrent … there was an amount of intrigue to it. Just another academic curiosity that came with a critically thinking mind that wanted to know about all perspectives of everything. ‘She …. She did say just once.’ Her hoof met the handle.

“Alright,” she sighed, resigning herself to curiosity. ‘Just to figure out why my brain keeps coming up with these thoughts’

“Just once.”

Author's Note

Well .... That escalated quickly

you all should know the drill by now.
Like, Comments, Critiques, Complaints, Questions, and Suggestions ... i loves 'em all

Warning: The next chapter is clop. However as far as story development goes nothing really happens so it can be skipped. Twilight goes in asserting herself sexually. Rainbow is initially freaked out but is unable to object until it starts feeling too good for her to want to object. And at the end Rainbow makes a statement that makes Twilight realize the mistake she just made.

So for those of you who don't wish to read clop don't have to in order to follow the story, which i hope you'll continue to do.