Maud Pie stares at Rarity before saying, "Purge the extra emotions into a Tabula Rasa."
Rarity slaps her hoof against her head, "Of course! Why didn't I think of that!"
Maud Pie deadpans, "Because you aren't getting a roctorate, specializing in crystals."
Rarity closes her eyes, sighing loudly. Several seconds later she opens her eyes, "Well, I don't think I have a blank slate around here. Do you know where to find one?"
"Yes," Maud Pie replies.
Rarity massages her forehead with her hoof, "How close is it, will you take me there, and what tools should we bring?"
Maud Pie, her voice as inflection-less as always, "Approximately fifteen minutes walk, yes, none."
"Thank you." Rarity nods to herself and starts gathering a few materials and saddlebags, making her way to the front door.
Pinkie Pie comes around the corner, exclaiming, "Oh! Maud Pie! You're here! I knew you would make it! How's my PSBFF?"
Maud deadpans, "Pinkie, I told you to stop calling me that."
Pinkie throws her hooves in the air, "What! But now that the Pie Sisters Best Friends Forever are together, we can get started! Hooray!"
Rarity says, "Yes, please, let's get started. Lead on, Maud!" Maud nods, the three mares walking out of the store. They make their way towards one of the quarries on the outskirts of the town, a bit of haste in two of the three mare's movements.
Several minutes pass before Starlight Glimmer arrives at the front of the store. The pink unicorn knocks on the door, frowning slightly as it swings open, the bell chiming. The unicorn glances inside, saying, "Hello? Is anypony there?" She cautiously walks inside, murmuring to herself, "Well, this is a store, and I didn't see a closed sign. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to-" Starlight spots the quad essence crystal laying on one of the tables, "Hello, what do we have here?" She moves a hoof to her chin, her eyes flaring a light turquoise as she scans the crystal. "Hmm. Solid matrix, decent pattern. Might store four cutie marks, doubt it could hold more than that. Especially with it already containing... something else."
Her eyes trace an invisible pattern through the air, the unicorn following the trail to the back storeroom. She cautious yells, "Hello? Anypony back there?" She hears a grunt, followed by the sounds of something shifting on the floor. She braces herself as she creeps up to the door, readying a shield and knockback spell. She breaths out, resting a hoof on her chest before moving forward.
The door bursts open, Starlight quickly taking a step back, her eyes glowing. Nothing happens; Starlight holds her position for several seconds. She slowly makes her way inside the storeroom, quick glances to the left and right. She looks further in, noticing something hiding behind a few of the boxes. Her horn flares as she creeps closer to find that Doug has shifted, curled into a ball in the far corner. Starlight sighs, dropping her spells and scanning again. Nothing else in the room. She spots the magical trail from the essence crystal leading into Doug and she shakes her head, "What are you doing in there? You should know better than to play with other ponies's toys." Her horn flares and Doug goes rigid, a smile briefly crossing Starlight's face. "There. No more struggling. Now let's get to work."
Starlight glances around the storeroom, looking for a suitable vessel to hold the essences. She picks up a few different gems with her magic and inspects them, unsatisfied with the results. She replaces a few of the large gems where she found them, glancing back and forth between two metal cans. She finally settles on a larger glass bottle, shrugging as she says, "Well, it won't hold for long, but with the right reinforcement it should work. Better to get you out and then work on a replacement, right?"
Her horn flares again, a steady beam that seems to drill straight into Doug's chest. He stays rigid, his eyes darting from Starlight's horn to the beam. A long wisp of yellow vapor seems to draw itself from his bare chest, gathering into a ball in front of Starlight. She levitates the glass bottle over, stuffing the yellow trail into the bottle before the hint of a blue wisp peeks out from his chest. She smiles, "Alright, one down, three to go. Unless there are more of you, hiding inside? Hmm, let's find out."
Starlight continues her work, drawing five more colored streams of vapor from Doug's chest before she frowns. "Is that it? I could have sworn there was one more." Her horn flares, the beam between Doug's chest and her horn glowing brighter. "Deep little bugger too, real solid attachment to- Oh! Wait, that might have been you. Doug. Your personality. That would have been bad." Doug grunts and Starlight's eyes go wide, "Oops! Forgot to turn that off." A glow surrounds Doug's body, his arms coming up and his hands rubbing his head.
Doug grimaces, shutting his eyes and letting out a low moan. He breaths in and out a couple times before glancing over towards Starlight, "Was that you? You got rid of the voices?"
"Yup, your friendly neighborhood Starlight Glimmer." Starlight nods, smiling at Doug. "So, I saw a quad essence crystal in the main area. Did that happen to be the crystal you wrote me about?" Doug nods, a pained expression still on his face, and Starlight frowns, "Well, I took a look at it. It's close, but not quite what I was looking for. Thanks for the help, though, even if it didn't pan out. Keep letting me know what you find and I guess we can call it even for this."
Doug tiredly nods, "Yeah, sure, no problem." He lays back down on the floor, massaging his head.
Starlight gives a sad smile, "Uh, I might have tried to pull, um, you out of your body. Your head will probably hurt for a little, maybe a day, but it should get better. Write me a letter if it doesn't. Also, probably better if you don't tell anypony I tried to do that to you." Starlight flinches as the front door can be heard opening. She says, "Also, if anypony asks, I was never here. Stay safe, oh, and if you do need to keep working on these essences, wear protection. I recommend a good pair of aviators."
Doug looks at her questioningly, shaking his head, "I'm not lying to anypony. And, sunglasses?"
Starlight nods, frowning, "Yup, the darker the better. Well, just don't bring me up, okay? I gotta run. See ya!"
Starlight Glimmer moves over to the door, glancing from side to side before quietly slinking away. A minute later Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Maud Pie walk into the room, hooves stomping loudly as they make their way into the storeroom. Doug is laying on the ground, eyes closed, and hand massaging his forehead. Maud Pie moves over to inspect the glass bottle, a hazy swirl of color inside, while Rarity rushes over to Doug, nuzzling him and asking, "Doug! Darling, are you all right?"
Doug moans, "Well, my head still hurts, but I feel a lot better. Do you know what happened?"
Rarity looks over at the bottle, puzzled. She says, "Well, I think that one or more of the essences managed to get into you, trying to influence your actions. Maud Pie came, being an expert on these kinds of things, and we went to get a crystal that will hold the emotions once they were drawn out of you. But, it appears somepony already did that."
Doug slowly shakes his head, "Ugh, I woke up on the floor with a severe headache, but feeling a lot more myself. My headache is slowly going away, too."
Maud Pie says, holding a large white crystal, "It is nice to see you better, Doug, but we should get the essences into this Tabula before they break free and corrupt you again."
Rarity moves over, "Okay, Maud, how do we do that?"
Maud holds the bottle to Pinkie Pie, "Pinkie, hold this and do nothing."
Pinkie gives Maud an odd look, "Are you sure you want me to do nothing?"
Maud deadpans, "Yes. Hold the bottle away from you and do nothing else."
Pinkie says, "Oooohhh. I can do that." Pinkie Pie takes a deep breath, moving over and taking the bottle from Maud's hooves, holding it as far away from her body as she can.
Maud looks over at Rarity, "Now, levitate the Tabula between Pinkie Pie and Doug."
Rarity lifts the Tabula Rasa, holding the large crystal between the two, "Like this?"
Maud Pie says, "Lower."
Rarity lowers the crystal, it nearly on the floor. "Better?"
Maud says, "Yes. Hold it still." She moves into position next to Pinkie Pie, turning around and centering her hind legs on the bottle Pinkie is holding out.
Rarity hesitantly asks, "Are you sure you know what you are doing?"
Maud deadpans, "Yes," before she rears up and gives the bottle a two hoofed kick, shattering it. The swirls of color bolt from her hooves, aimed directly at Doug. They each fly straight into the Tabula Rasa, the crystal gradually changing color as the essences swirl inside. They gradually slow down, getting dimmer and dimmer before the light coming from the Tabula winks out, the only glow from Rarity's magic levitating it.
Rarity breaths a sigh of relief before asking, "How did you know that would happen? Have you done this before?"
Maud shakes her head, "No. But I studied." She glances over at Pinkie Pie, the mare starting to turn blue. "Pinkie, you can move again."
Pinkie Pie breathes out a huge breath while saying, "Oh my gosh Maud that was amazing I don't think I've ever seen something like that happen before! You're incredible!"
Maud Pie shakes her head, "No, I'm Maud."
Doug moves to a sitting position, "Well, thank you for that, Maud. Your expertise has been invaluable." He winces, rubbing his head again.
Maud Pie nods, "Do you need any other help?" At the gathered ponies head shakes she says, "Good day," and turns, leaving the Boutique.
Outside the Boutique, Starlight Glimmer sits down, sighing loudly. Her venture has hit a rock in the road; if she doesn't find someplace to store the cutie marks, her whole experiment will be ruined. And a larger essence crystal definitely won't work, not even considering the amount of trouble actually acquiring an eight essence crystal would be. And even then she would be capped at twelve cutie marks. Well, maybe if she used an array of quad essence crystals? It would mean a lot of trips to the Badlands, or the Deep part of Ghastly Gorge. And not many ponies make it out of the Deep. Not solo, and she doesn't know if she can get Doug or anypony involved without compromising her plans. She starts wandering to the outskirts of Ponyville, hoping to find the cave and that 'Tabula' thing the gray pony had mentioned. Maybe she can find something there.
Maud Pie steps outside of the Boutique, brushing dust off her blue frock. She starts walking back to the area where they located the Tabula, hoping to get a little more research done for her Roctorate. As she starts mining a few of the more interesting samples a pink unicorn walks up to her, Starlight asking, "Psst! Do you know a lot about rocks?"