"No, the decimal gets carried over when you divide, remember?" Twilight said gently as Scootaloo groaned in frustration. The friendship castle's vaulted ceilings echoed with the pained moans of fillies trying in vain to complete their homework.
"Ugh, I hate math!"
"I know it's tough, but it's not impossible, I promise," Twilight assured her, glancing to the other side of her table where Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had their noses buried in books. Apple Bloom looked up from her history textbook. She followed Spike with her eyes as he continued re-shelving the books of Twilight's personal library. Since the destruction of her old home, Twilight had made it her personal mission to rebuild the fortress of knowledge she had lived in before. All it took was a quick grant from the crown and she was able to get replacements for all but her most rare first-editions. The friendship castle was slowly becoming the friendship library.
"Spike, you don't know how good you have it," Apple Bloom complained. "Ah wish Ah didn't have ta go ta school."
The young dragon scoffed over his shoulder as he put the final books back on the shelves. "You think I don't go to school? You should try a lesson with Professor Sparkle."
Twilight smiled. "You know I can't just have you lazing around reading comic books all day."
Spike continued his chores as Twilight helped her pupils where she could, but no matter how many books on educational theory she read, trying to figure out each of the crusaders learning styles eluded her. Scootaloo continually struggled with her mathematics, Sweetie Belle had trouble with the rote memorization required for historically significant dates and events, and Apple Bloom detested what she called the 'boring rules of grammar'. Twilight knew they were capable of mastering the subjects. In fact, they were three of the brightest fillies she'd ever known! But something was blocking their potential.
After the girls had left, Twilight began searching for every book in her library on neuroscience and the anatomy of the pony brain.
"Twilight, it's high moon, why are you still awake?" Spike asked from his basket, covering his face with his blanket to block the candle light.
"Just a bit of research," she replied halfheartedly. She looked up from her books and smiled. "But I guess I could take my work to the basement."
Twilight gathered her materials and moved herself down to her laboratory. Since the destruction of her original home, Princess Luna had been instrumental in giving her the funding to rebuild her lab equipment. Since then, she hadn't really had much time to conduct experiments or concoct interesting chemical compounds. However, the events of the day had inspired her. Why was it that she was able to grasp such high mathematical and scientific concepts when many other ponies abhorred such difficult subjects? Her brain was no different than anypony else's, right?
Waist deep in her books, a knock at the door drew her attention. She climbed the stairs, figuring Spike was still asleep. Coming into the foyer of the castle, she shielded her face from the morning sun. Darn it Twilight, you forgot to go to bed, she thought, trotting to the door.
"Rainbow?" Twilight inhaled sharply. It certainly wasn't like her to use the front door. "Everything alright?"
Her eyes met her friend's. "Actually, I got a pretty big problem." Twilight welcomed her inside and she took a seat on her throne.
"Whats wrong?"
Dash took a deep breath. "If I want to go active duty with the Wonderbolts, I have to take a flight test."
"Is that the problem? You'll pass a flight test no sweat!" Twilight replied.
"It's a written flight test," Dash groaned.
Twilight frowned. "Well, it's not the end of the world," she said, trying to lift he spirits. "The girls and I would love to help you study just like we did before!"
Her optimism had just the opposite effect of what she'd hoped for. Dash sank back into Twilight's couch.
"Do you think you could get the girls to act out the formula for finding the lapse rate? Or how about the temperature that fog forms?"
Twilight couldn't help but giggle. "Well, fog formation isn't tied to a specific temperature, it's actually a function of the free air temperature and the dew point—" she stopped, understanding the point Rainbow was trying to make. "Right, I guess this is going to be a bit tougher than last time. Did they at least give you a study guide or something?"
"Yeah," Rainbow sighed, digging into her saddle bag and producing a book about three inches thick, dropping it on the conference table between them for dramatic effect. She slid the tome over to Twilight as she opened the cover.
"Hmm..." Twilight said, flipping through the chapters. "Rainbow, with the exception of chapters four and six, most of this is just weather based. Isn't this something you already know?" A fair assumption, considering her job as town weather manager would entail at least cursory knowledge of the job.
"You know I'm no good with the numbers side of things! I'm a doer, not a thinker! I mean, I was lucky to pass the reserves test... I'll never make it past this."
Twilight looked through the multitude of print describing cloud formation, the conditions needed for them to form, the possible hazards, everything from raindrops to lightning bolts was contained in this one massive book. Sweet Celestia, she might be right Twilight shook the thought from her head. Rainbow could do anything she set her mind to! All she had to do was help her out.
"Nonsense, Rainbow, you and I will figure this out. When is your test? A month from now? Two months?" she asked hopefully.
"A week from today."
"All this in one week?" Twilight replied in shock. "How can they possibly expect anyone to know all this in one week?"
Rainbow scratched the back of her neck and began to blush. "Well... I've had it for a bit longer than that..."
Twilight's expression flattened. "How much longer?"
"About, uhm... two months."
Disbelief and anger fought inside her as to which emotion would dominate. "Two months, and you just bring this to me now?"
"I'm sorry! I just had other stuff I had to do, and I kept telling myself I'd get to it later, and I never really... did."
Twilight rubbed her hooves over her eyes and sat back in her throne. "Okay, well, let's get started."
She spent the entirety of that day trying to help Rainbow learn, but found it difficult. As with before, Dash was much more suited to visual learning styles, but trying to act out dry adiabatic cooling, or how advection fog forms would challenge even the most talented actor. Before she realized it, the sun had already sunk back down, and Rainbow seemed no more ready for the test than when she came in that morning.
"Look, I haven't had a lot of sleep, so I think here's a good place to stop," Twilight yawned, closing the giant book and stretching her legs. "When are you free tomorrow?"
"I can come over on my lunch break, and again after work." Rainbow frowned ears flattening against her head, staring at the numerous flashcards, the three empty kettles of tea, and various study aids scattered across the table. "I really screwed up big time on this one."
Twilight stood from her chair, placing a gentle hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "Hey, we still have time. We'll figure something out."
"Thanks, Twilight." Rainbow smiled before gathering her things and heading toward the door. Once she had left, Twilight found herself contemplating a night on the floor. The stairs were a daunting task functioning on a few scant hours of rest. She made it up the stairs with the help of her fancy new wings, and settled into bed, more than intent on sleeping like a rock. However, the events of the day and the one before would influence her time in dreamland as well.
Spike woke up at his usual time that morning, ready to put on a kettle of tea and begin his morning routine. He looked to Twilight's bed after rubbing the sleep from his eyes. She was gone.
"Twilight?" he called, to make sure she wasn't in the bathroom. He climbed out of his basket and began down the stairs. "Twilight, you down here?" he asked, coming down the stairs and noticing the door to her lab ajar, a flickering of strange lights coming from just beyond. Not that it was unusual for strange lights to creep from beyond that particular door, but Spike always made it a point to at least investigate what she was doing down there, just to make sure he didn't have another crisis brewing that may threaten the town.
He headed into the basement lab and peered around the corner. Twilight was wearing her safety goggles and white lab coat, holding a beaker filled with glowing blue liquid in one magical field and a container of silvery liquid in another. A small drop of the blue into the silver, and the container began to fizz and shake. Twilight quickly placed the container in what she called her 'bad experiments' box, which was nothing more than an armored box the put things she thought was likely or at least had an outside shot of exploding.
A muffled pop was all that remained of what could have been a castle shattering explosion. Twilight opened the box and removed a single pill, half blue, half silver.
Spike walked up beside her to admire her work. "Do I even want to know what this is?"
"This, Mr. Grumpyscales, is the result of another near all-nighter and an inspirational dream!"
Spike exhaled through his nostrils. "And what's it for?"
Twilight removed the pill from the box and set it in a prescription bottle. "I'm glad you asked!" she smiled, checking off a few items on her clipboard and removing her lab coat and safety goggles. "It's for helping Rainbow study for her Wonderbolts test." Spike followed her around the lab as she came to a table with a maze with a piece of cheese at the center. Two white mice sat at opposite ends of the maze. "Now, as you recall yesterday, Rainbow Dash has trouble remembering figures and formulas, with a special deficiency of her ability to retain said information. Now, with my research on neuroscience in the previous month, combined with the motivation to help Rainbow Dash study on her own, I developed a chemical compound that should allow Dash to retain, interpret, and understand even the most high mathematical concepts!" Twilight turned her attention to the mice in the maze. "Jackie, on the left here, is my control, she was given nothing but water and food. Barnabas, the mouse on the right was given just a few micrograms of my compound." Spike peered over the edge of the maze. The control mouse seemed content trying to sniff his way to the cheese, while the other mouse sat in his starting area, squeaking to a group of other mice from beyond his enclosure.
"The mouse on the left tries time and again to complete the maze, but the mouse on the right climbed over the walls to get the cheese at first. Now, he's explaining to his mouse brethren that the maze is pointless, and they'd get cheese whether they completed it or not!"
Spike nodded, taking a step back and examining the pill. "Twilight, are you sure it's a good idea to make things smarter than they're supposed to be?"
Twilight scoffed. "Spike, I'm doing this to help a friend fulfill her dream. Besides, it's not permanent, the effects will wear off soon after she's done with the test."
The young dragon set the pill back on the tray. "And you're sure there is no way this is going to spiral out of control and have unforeseen consequences on a town-wide scale?"
"Spike, what kind of scientist would I be if I didn't take every necessary precaution?" Twilight took the pill in her magic and headed upstairs.
"But you're not a scientist. You're a princess, remember?"
Twilight set the tray on the table in the throne room, Spike's footsteps echoing around the vaulted ceilings above them. "I can be more than one thing, Spike."
Spike would have protested further, but he had long since figured out that as motherly as Twilight acted towards him, he had to let her make her own mistakes. "I'm going on record as saying that you playing Celestia is a bad idea."
Twilight removed her tea kettle and set it on the stove after filling it with water. "Alright, I'll tell you what. I'll study as hard as I can with Rainbow Dash today, and if it looks like she's making progress, I won't give her the pill."
Spike raised his hands as he walked up the stairs to his basket. "You do whatever you want, just don't say I didn't warn you."
Twilight's face scrunched as she watched him go. "Always with the negativity..." Twilight sighed as she prepared her breakfast, casting wayward glances at the pill as it lay on the table. "No. Rainbow needs to realize that her actions have consequences. If she wouldn't have procrastinated, this wouldn't be happening." In her heart, she knew Spike was right. Besides, who was she to shortchange Rainbow's accomplishments by letting her cheat? Rainbow is perfectly capable of memorizing over six hundred pages in less than a week.
The more she thought about it, the more absurd it sounded. Not even she was capable of such a feat. At least not involving a subject she had no prior knowledge regarding.
"It would be nice to test my creation... but I can't let Rainbow feel cheated, she'd want to earn her spot on the Wonderbolts by her own merit, not with something I made in a lab!" Twilight stomped her hoof, her nose held high. She would take the high road. With a quick flash of magic, the pill levitated onto the counter.
By lunchtime, Rainbow entered in her usual door-less fashion, and they began their session. After three hours, it was becoming abundantly clear that Rainbow simply was not capable of the rote memorization this kind of test required. As Twilight rubbed her eyes, her mind drifted toward last night's experiment. No, this can work. Rainbow would never take the easy way out.
"Spike, can we get another kettle of tea?"
"Yeah, but I'll have to wash one," the young dragon said, taking the multiple teapots to the kitchen. As he went, Twilight decided to pose a simple question.
"Rainbow, if there was an option that would allow you to memorize all of this in time for this test, would you take it?"
She barely had time to finish her sentence before Rainbow replied. "Are you serious? Of course I would!" Her eyes lit up instantly. "Did you come up with a spell or something?"
"No, it was... it was just a hypothetical." She smiled, the fire fading from Dash's eyes.
"Oh... well I guess we should get back to this then—"
A crash from the kitchen drew both their attention.
"Spike, are you okay?" Twilight shouted, springing up from the table and skidding to a halt above her number one assistant, shards of the teapot he was cleaning littering the floor.
"Yeah... I'm good," he said, trying to get to his feet, but instead being yanked into the air by purple magic.
"Are you bleeding? Are there any shards in your—"
"Twilight!" Spike shouted, staring her in the eye. "I'm fine, scales are tougher than you think." His smile was all she needed to drive the point home as she set him down. "The tea's ready, by the way."
She carried the teapot to the table as she started on what had to be her tenth cup that evening. The moon was already high in the sky, and her bedtime was rapidly approaching. "Tea, Rainbow?" Twilight always offered, though she knew better. Rainbow Dash had never liked tea, as far as she knew. Though she could assume that was probably because she didn't have the patience for water to boil.
"Actually, yeah, I'll take some." Twilight raised her eyebrows as she looked up from her glass. "Don't give me that look. You drink it, and you're a super-genious, so maybe some of that'll rub off on me."
She couldn't help buck giggle. "Rainbow, I don't think the tea has anything to do with my intelligence," Twilight replied, sliding her the cup she was going to drink. But, the placebo effect is well-documented... "But, if it'll help you, I'm all for it."
Twilight knew they'd only have an hour or two left of useful study time before they would both need a good night's rest. The time passed just as the hours before had, with Dash's gradual progress showing promise, but simply not happening fast enough to prepare her for a comprehensive exam only days away.
"Alright, Rainbow I'm pretty tired. What say we pick up chapter four where we left off tomorrow?"
Dash moaned as she drug her hooves across her face. "I just spent nearly a whole day studying. I don't know if I'll survive five more."
"Remember why you're doing this, and you'll be fine," Twilight said, seeing Rainbow out of the friendship castle.
"You're right. I mean, if I can't push myself for my dream, then who's gonna?"
Twilight smiled. "That's the spirit. Goodnight, Rainbow."
"'Night, Twi."
As soon as she closed the door, she heard a terrified shout from the basement.
"Spike?" She called, getting no reply. She trotted carefully down the stairs only to recoil in shock. Spike was bound, hanging by his heels with tape over his mouth.
In an instant, Twilight rushed over to him, cutting the twine with her magic and tearing off the tape. "Spike, what on equis happened?"
"The mice! That one you gave the smart pill to... I saw him, and then there was fur everywhere!"
Twilight looked around. All her mice enclosures were empty!
On the table, a tiny scrap of paper lay beside a puddle of ink. Twilight made out small scribbles as she searched for a magnifying glass.
Twilight Sparkle,
While I was most content with my life of leisure in your laboratory, a recent experiment of yours has opened my eyes to the vastness of the world beyond my enclosure. It is with this in mind that I orchestrated mine and my brethren's escape from the confines of your basement. There is much more to this life than cheese at the end of a maze. On one paw, I suppose I should be angry with you, keeping my kind and I trapped in cages, but on the other paw, were it not for your experiments, I would never have awakened as truly as I have today. Jacqueline and I are taking the rest of our kind into the wilderness to build a civilization for the good of mouse-kind.
Regards,
Mouse, Barnabus the
"This... this should've worn off by now!" Twilight said, putting a hoof to her forehead. She turned quickly to the stairs. "Spike, we need to destroy that pill!"
Spike followed quickly behind her as they entered the kitchen. Twilight gasped. "Spike, what happened to the pill?"
"It should be on the counter." Spike dragged a stool over and climbed on it, helping her look.
"I put it right here, where did it go?"
A cold weight dropped into Twilight's stomach. "Spike... when you slipped earlier, did you bump the counter?"
"Probably, I was trying to catch myself on something."
"Oh Celestia... Spike, the pill, it must have fallen off the counter, look on the floor!" Twilight put her cheeks on the cold marble floor, looking desperately beneath her cabinets.
After ten minutes of searching, Spike's back started to hurt. "Twilight, it's not down here."
She sat back on her haunches in a huff. "Well then where is it, Spike?"
"I dunno, the only thing near the pill when I fell was the tea I made for... you... guys..."
The color drained from Twilight's face. "Rainbow drank the entire pot!"
"Well, at least she'll pass her Wonderbolt test!"