Two Background Ponies Quickie: "Every Little Thing She Does" Aftermath · 1:51pm Oct 2nd, 2016
"Ugh...why are we having to head out this way again, Sam?"
The blue stallion gave his green-colored friend a disapproving look as they walked down the seedy, dark street of downtown Ponyville, approaching a rather shoddy and nearly-abandoned-looking "hole-in-the-wall" cookie establishment. "Carl, remember how you went off on that tirade at Sugarcube Corner the other day about your theory that the reason ponies wear clothes is because an malevolent intergalactic ball of string landed on this planet millions of years ago that feeds off of brain waves and so it directed pony evolution to not only make them sentient but to also give them the idea to start wearing clothes, all so that one day our own attire will rise up against us, devour us, and then destroy this world to seek new planets to conquer?"
"All I'm saying is I'm a pony who chooses to remain in the buff as a precaution, Sam."
"...Right. Anyway, that one got so bad Mr. Cake banned us for a month. So I figured I'd try this place out."
He gestured ahead, causing Carl to look over the sign. He frowned. "...'Saltlick Nook'? Sounds lovely."
"I'm using this opportunity to try new places, Carl. We could use one private enough to where no one has to hear your craziness. I ran into Starlight Glimmer yesterday as she was getting ready to leave for Canterlot for a few days to pick up some stuff from Twilight's old place, and she said no one ever goes here. That's why she used it as her base of operations when she was spying and stalking the girls."
Carl wheeled on Sam. "We're actually going somewhere she recommended?! We'll probably get drugged by the cookies and wake up in bathtubs full of ice with our kidneys missing!"
The blue stallion groaned and pushed Carl onward. Soon they were reaching the door and pushing it open. "We'll be fine. We'll get some pumpkin spice, you can start going off about how some spells are innate while others need books, and we can all-"
As soon as the doors were open and the two were looking inside, both froze and stared.
The Mane Six were closely huddled around the nearest circular table, each one looking either scared or tense, along with a pile of charts, graphs, tables, and surveillance photographs spread on it, as well as two separate "uniform surveillance videos" playing around them courtesy of Twilight. Spike was serving strong black coffee as they hurriedly talked to each other.
"...And this latest incident combined with the data tracking I've meticulously collected during our little 'magic lessons' confirms that threat to Equestria beyond a shadow of a doubt! Her power is only going to continue to grow and within a month's time even the Rainbow Power forms won't be able to stop her!"
"She was in our heads! I feel so...so...DIRTY!"
"Ah was bein' played like a goll durn puppet show! Ah'd take the 'Shack of Sameness' fer an entire week rather than have that happen again!"
"Think of the cake! Think of the cake!"
"I'm...um...still removing embedded ticks..."
"So do we have no other choice, Twilight? Is this what it's come to?"
"She was able to manipulate time, outperform me in magic, and now it's proven she can disable all of you at once. If there is even a 1% chance that she could turn evil then we have to treat it as an absolute certainty. The question is how would we do it without her knowing about it... I think we can start with Spike beginning to dope her morning muffins with traces of..."
Twilight trailed off. At this point, the six had stopped and were staring at the front of the establishment, noticing the two stallions staring at them.
Both sides were silent for ten full seconds.
"...How much of that did you boys just hear?" The Princess of Friendship finally asked.
The two stallions looked to one another, then back. However, Carl slowly smiled. "Oh, enough to tell Starlight Glimmer not to eat muffins anymore...or to go to your magic lessons."
The other five girls began to sweat nervously. Twilight, on her part, narrowed her gaze. "Alright...what price is your silence?"
Sam immediately reacted. "Wait, what? Twilight, we're your friends! You really bailed us out back in Manehattan! You don't really think that we'd be so shallow and greedy to try and extort anything out of you just because we walked in on this, do you? After everything you've done for us?"
Carl frowned a bit at Sam backing out, but the girls began to relax at that. Even Twilight seemed to ease up.
Then slowly, Sam looked upward. "Although..." He formed just a hint of a smile. "I'm cleaning the apartment this weekend, and...I hear Spike is really good at bathrooms..."
The baby dragonservant snapped alert. "Wait, what?"
Twilight's frown returned as she sighed. "Done." She looked to Carl next. "Alright, I know you won't be nearly so reluctant, so let's just-"
"A raise at the horseshoe plant, double my next Hearth's Warming Eve bonus, and I can't be fired. Oh, and you six cover babysitting Farrah's foals the next three times she makes it my job."
Frowns all around as Twilight let out a huge groan. "Ok, ok! Now get out of here! It took me a week to come up with that Canterlot excuse to get her out of Ponyville!"
The two began to turn to leave, but then paused and looked back in.
"But...if she's out of town, how come you six just aren't meeting in the Castle of Friendship?"
Both Twilight and Spike began to look uncomfortable at that. "After we found out about the spider and centipede infestations, we're too afraid to even touch the seat cushions."
I still like calling it the propaganda hut, but Shack of Sameness has a very nice ring to it.
Also, I'm pretty sure Tartarus has a vacancy...