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// Flotation Devices 
// Story: My Little Bubble Bath: Alicorns take very long bubble baths 
// by CosmicAfro 
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There was only one apt word to describe the room: Bubbles. The entire surface area of the water was covered in a thick but easily maneuvered barrier of bubbles. If Luna or Celestia were to stand on the water, their horns would only just be poking out of the top. Which worried her, seeing as her sister was still in that mess. And the explosion was so sudden too. Perhaps her throwing the bottle agitated the mix, causing it to burst like it had. In all fairness, she had expected her sister to catch it. She had not foreseen it smacking against the edge of the tub, causing the thin plastic barrier to snap at the bottom and release nearly half a bottle’s worth. Likely far more.

“Luna? Luna, can you hear me?”

There was faint sound of sloshing in the water. Something was moving in there, even if the bubbles remained perfectly still. Celestia rushed to the side of the edge of the bath and began to swipe at the bubbles. To her horror, she began to remember the peculiar effects of the bubbles as they replaced themselves as they popped. What was worse, if the time they lasted depended on the dosage…

“Luna! Luna! Say something!” Celestia dove in hooves first, entering with a perfect dive. She pushed through, losing herself in the sea of foam.

“Sister, I’m over here!”

“Where, Luna!?”

“Follow my voice! There’s too much soap in my eye, I can’t see where I am! I tried to swim near the edge but I may have gone away from it.”

“Just keep talking, I’ll find you. Hold on.”

Celestia swam onwards and her feet began to lose the ground, meaning she was entering the deeper section of the pool. She backpedaled a bit into shallower water until her hooves could barely touch the floor. “Sister, are you in the deep section?”

“No! This way! The little island beyond it.”

“But I can’t swim past this, you know I don’t do well with deep water.”

“Then fly over it.”

“I can’t, I’m soaked.”

There was a period of silence between them, and Celestia stood there, bobbing her head above the water.

“So, Celestia, let me get this straight. Knowing full well you couldn’t swim in deep waters, you went ahead and jumped into the bath, soaking your wings, when you could have just flown above this and scouted from there?”

Celestia shook her head violently. “I panicked! I didn’t know what happened to you, I couldn’t bear to lose my sister.”

“I never would have guessed the calm, complacent Celestia would have been so… careless.”

“Yes, I had a moment of weakness. I’ll leave the tub and walk around it until my wings dry. Do you think you can find an edge for me?”

“No, I feel fine here now. The soap’s out of my eyes and I feel quite comfortable. I’ll float here until it dies down a bit.”

Celestia rolled her eyes. And then… a wicked idea crossed her mind to bring her sister out of hiding, something that would serve as a bonus for her sister’s mockery. “Yes, I assume you’ll have no problems resting with those floatation devices of yours.”

She could see it now, Luna suddenly blushing and then stammering to find the words to react. As if on cue, “fl-float? Where, what, how do you mean my ‘ flotation devices’?” she said in confounded anger.

“I guess you wouldn’t ever have noticed them, seeing as they’re always behind you.”

“Did you just call my bottom FAT!?” A beacon of blue light shot out from the far end of the pool, reaching the ceiling and inscribing her crescent moon cutie mark into the ceiling. Luna rose out from the pool, wiping a patch of bubbles off of her chin and head. “Coming from the princess who indulges herself in cake far too often?”

“Found you,” Celestia said while winking.

Realizing she’d been had, Luna blushed even further. If it wasn’t for the wood beginning to work, releasing copious amounts of steam, one could have possibly seen her own head boiling in embarrassed anger. She would have responded with words unfit for a princess if something peculiar hadn’t happened that very moment.

A guardspony clad in golden armor popped out from the wall, landing on the floor and the rest of the room seemed to gasp. As Luna’s eyes darted to the stallion, she caught another eye peeking through the wall and suddenly Luna realized a horrifying truth. They were being watched.

This did not go over well with her…