The sorceress's lab was pretty much exactly the same as I remembered it. Well, other than the refreshing breeze provided by the missing wall and the small glass tank containing the sleeping form of Unique. It looks uncomfortable in there. I do not envy Unique the time he spent in that cage.
"Oy!" I rapped on the glass. "Wake up sleepy head! You're relevant to the plot again." To their credit, Fphant and the sorceress were able to ignore me. Unique on the other hand...
"Plot? What are you talking about?" ...not so much.
The sorceress cast some sort of spell to open up Unique's container. I don't know what kind of spell it was, but any spell which makes glass turn into some kind of viscous liquid and flow apart is cool. "Just ignore the insane one lest ye go insane thyself," she told him in a sage tone.
"That's probably the best advice I've heard in a long time," Fphant agreed. I nodded my head as well. That's right even I don't listen to me. Maybe I should find some sort of sycophantic sidekick who hangs off of every syllable that comes from my mouth and parrots my words to total strangers in order to increase my awful self esteem?
Nah, too much effort. I'd rather just train a monkey to type unflattering things about me on a typewriter.
"Not that I'm complaining or anything," Unique said to the sorceress, doing a stretch as soon as he was free from the glass box. "But why are you releasing me now?" He twisted his neck sharply and a couple loud pops sounded out. "Last I checked you were going to use me as a bargaining chip or something to help get your way."
"We kinda had a bonding session at Fphant's expense on the way here after I knocked her out when she tried to make me come with her by force," I explained succinctly.
Fphant nodded in confirmation while I entertained myself with Unique's confused look. Priceless. Wish I had a camera.
"That about sums it up," the sorceress agreed. "Although you left out the bit where you and Fphant almost lost a fight with a couple of blank flanks."
"Keyword there is 'almost'," I pointed out, choosing to ignore the plot hole glaring me in the face. Why confront the inconsistencies in the narrative when they'll likely resolve themselves in a minute or two anyways? "Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."
"What the hay is a 'hand' grenade?" Unique asked.
I was about to respond when Fphant cut me off. "How did you even know about that fight anyways?" he asked the sorceress, suspicion lacing his words. "You were unconscious!" See? The plot hole's being resolved and I didn't even need to raise a hoof.
"Magic," the sorceress replied simply. Sure it might've been a cop-out resolution, but it was resolved nonetheless.
"That's great and all," Unique interjected, "and my sappy pony nature is pleased that we're all buddy-buddy, but now what?"
"I offered to help him get over a nasty allergy he's got," the sorceress waved a hoof at me, "and this was the natural place to go anyways, since I needed to release you at some point."
"Nasty allergy?" Unique queried. "What kind of nasty allergy? And why didn't he mention it before drinking my electrified Winde-" for some inconceivable reason Unique took that moment to hack out a cough. Funnily enough, it sounded like the sort of cough one uses to cover up a slip of the tongue, though I'm not sure what Unique would be trying to cover up. "Ahem," he restarted, "why didn't he mention any allergies before drinking my experimental Thunderbrew? It could have caused some sort of adverse reaction."
"You mean other than making me break the laws of logic?" I asked, savoring Unique's embarrassment. I watched him squirm for a bit before replying. "It must've slipped my mind," I confessed.
My admission cleared away his embarrassment in approximately a sixth of a minute. "I guess I can accept that," Unique said, now eyeing me like I was insane. In all fairness, his suspicion was completely justified.
"Either that or I didn't have the allergy until the author needed a humorous excuse for me to resist the sorceress's attempts to test on me." I pondered the possibility. "Nah," I waved a hoof dismissively, "that's probably not it."
"No matter how fascinating your theories are," the sorceress said with an eye roll, "I do believe it's time to carry on."
"You know, I do believe you're absolutely right," Fphant agreed. Don't I get a say in this? I actually like throwing around wild speculations in hope of unlocking the secret to life, the universe and everything!
"If you would please enter the bomb-proofed experimentation area, we can begin working." I looked around for an area that matched her description. I knew the walls weren't what I was looking for, seeing as how a single stick of dynamite had blown them to bits... The rest of the room didn't look promising either, since most of it seemed dedicated to storing various pieces of equipment.
"Uh, where am I supposed to go?" I asked sheepishly. In hindsight, it was actually pretty obvious and I could've avoided the "you're a moron" look if I'd been the least bit observant.
As one, two hooves and a whatever-it-is-Fphant-has pointed to the room clearly labeled "bomb-proofed experimentation area". As if that wasn't enough, the sorceress felt the need to clarify further. "Thataway."