"Fix it!"
"No. It's a good look on you, to be honest," Celestia chuckled.
Nick turned to Luna, clearly irritated. "Fine. Luna, fix it!"
"Nay, fair Nicholas! Thou hath bought us joy and merriment the bards and jesters of yore could only dream of! They weep in their graves knowing thou hath surpassed them all," Luna replied, before falling to the floor laughing uncontrolably.
Nick stomped his foot on the ground. "Rgh, FINE! I'll go get the maids to draw me a cure bath. ...as soon as I figure out what it did to me in the first place..." Nick angrily responded, adding a small mumble at the end. Celestia's ears perked up at that.
"You... you mean the poision joke pulled such an obvious prank on you, and... and you don't see it?" That got her to join her sister on the floor, gasping for air between guffaws.
"Argh! I'll do it myself. But mark my words, I will have my revenge!" And he stormed off in a rage, marching towards the castle spa.
It took the sisters a few minutes to calm down. As they hoof bumped in victory, Luna was the first to speak. "How long until Nicholas figures out that we are-"
She didn't get to finish her entrance, as Nick's voice pierced the castle from the spa. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE OUT OF CURE?!"
"I-it's as I said, sir Nick. We are out of poision joke bath, and we won't be getting our shipment until tonight. Eight o'clock at the earliest. I will have one of the maids alert you."
"Thanks, I guess."
"Not a problem!" As Nick made to leave the room, she added, "by the way, why are you wearing a sheet? It's not Nightmare Night yet. And I'm certain you could get a better costume from the royal tailors."
"Reasons. It's national dress like a ghost day. Something. Just please, don't ask, because I still don't know what that plant did to me!"
"It can't be that bad."
"It made Celestia lose her composure," Nick replied to the spa pony.
"Maybe keep the sheet on then."
It had been a LONG day for Nick. Both sisters had been pestering him for hours to see the handiwork of their prank again, and when their attempts at coercion and bribery failed, they turned to the one pony they knew could help.
"You can't hide forever, Nick! I will find you, and I will rip that sheet off you no matter how many ropes you tied it to yourself with, and I WILL GET MY DATA!"
So, having learned that the only human may or may not have been exposed to poision joke, Nick found himself thrust into an impromptu game of 'hide from the purple science horse'. Needless to say, Sparky was relentless and was getting closer to winning. And to top it all off, it was a mere 10 minutes until the bath would be ready. Sighing, and fearing the implications, he decided to pull out his secret Twilight distraction to buy him a few more precious seconds.
Twilight entered the room Nick was hiding in when she spotted a not on the floor. She picked it up and read it. "Sparky- you are persistent. So I will concede defeat and come quietly if you can answer the following question: If you have a ship consisting of 100 individual parts..."
As Twilight's mane frayed and signs of a full-on 'lesson zero' event was set into motion, Nick quietly slipped out of the room.
He could already hear the screams.
Still, he powered on, and burst into the spa to see the princesses standing next to a small hot tub full of a bubbling liquid. "Well, normally I'd say you look ridiculous, but given the current circumstances, I suppose it's an improvement," Celestia giggled. "The poision joke bath is ready whenever you are. Go ahead."
"Woohoo! Finally, back to normal!" Without a second thought, he ripped off his bindings and dove into the concoction. A few moments later, he surfaced. "Ahhhh... thanks for setting this up for me, girls. I know we give each other a hard time, but it's nice to know you care. Still, good move putting poision joke petals in that cake, Celly."
"Oh, those were just borage flowers. Blue, and edible to humans. I didn't actually intend for you to get away with a cake, but it worked out since you thought it was poision joke! We were just pulling your leg about everything," she replied.
"Wait, what?! So you're telling me you whipped up this poision joke cure bath for nothing?"
"Nay, dear Nicholas." Luna chuckled. "Recall the Dwagon incident a month ago? This isn't a poision joke cure. It's a poision joke bath. We are quite interested to view its effects in a more controlled environment than a crumbling, exploding courtyard."
"I hate you guys so much."
"We know."