Twilight scowled and upped the intensity of her stirring, holding the beaker up to the light. The reagents were reacting unexpectedly again, forming red-purple particulates. She chewed her lip worriedly and stirred faster, the silver rod whizzing in a well-described circle, scraping against the treated glass. With a thought, Twilight lifted her rowan branch and passed it three times over the mixture, hoping against all else that she’d measured correctly this time. A loud, sudden flash proved her wrong, and Twilight blinked spastically as she registered a shard of ex-beaker poking halfway through her safety goggles.
Twilight thwacked her head against her lab table in the vain hopes it would help the budding headache in her temples. It didn’t. She blinked furiously and centered her power, reaching out for everything that had been her beaker and drawing it together. The shards assembled neatly and she began fusing them together. Her power flared and the glassware melted to slag, splashing on her fire-resistant safety matting, releasing even more noxious smoke into the basement.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! GHAAAAAA!” Screaming wasn’t enough for this frustration, and Twilight wanted nothing more than to throw something into … her expensive lab equipment. So throwing was out. Twilight sighed and cleaned up what spills were quick to clean, hung up her safety gear, and trudged upstairs. Tea would help. Tea always helped.
Will the stupid water BOIL ALREADY? Twilight stamped and shuffled in place, sending death-glares at the annoyingly mundane kettle and the drawers next to the stovetop. She’d promised to never use a boiling spell while compromised since the freak weather incident she’d caused vaporizing the kettle itself during a three-day study binge. That promise, and her own integrity seemed to be mocking her. Finally, at the first hint of a whistle, Twilight lifted the kettle and filled her mug with as much water as she safely could, dancing the tea-ball with her magic and watching the bottom for the cup for the perfect tint of golden-brown.
As soon as the tea was within permissible boundaries, Twilight smiled and took a large delicious mouthful. Her tongue sent out every possible alarm signal and she spit it out into a fine mist. Her whole mouth was pins and needles, her tongue bloated and slow to respond.
Twilight slumped onto the kitchen floor, sobbing heavily, unable to stop herself. The front door jingled, and she shakily clambered to her hooves even as her lungs heaved in and out, even as her eyes blurred with a curtain of tears.
“Twilight? We wanted to know if you’d join us for lunch.” Two blurry ponies, White and pink, greeted her as she rounded the corner, sniffling heavily.
“Twilight? Whatever happened, dear?” Rarity started forward, and Twilight cringed back.
“I’ll be okay,” she wailed, “Jus-just give me a m-minute…” She was filthy, she reeked of sulphur and vinegar and who-knew-what-else. Rarity was hugging her. Huh.
Suddenly, Pinkie hung over her back, warm and soft and cozy. “Twilight?” she asked softly, gently. “Are you using a new shampoo?”
She sighed and started to explain. “It’s probably the sulphur dichl--”
“It smells like my Granny’s socks,” Pinkie interrupted, nosing slowly across Twilight’s neck. “I like it!”
Twilight couldn’t stop herself from laughing, tears still flowing down her face. She was on the rug with two wonderful friends, crying and laughing and twitching and flapping, high off the joy of four forelegs wrapped around her, shedding the frustration and pain with each little nip and tug and squeeze that rolled through her.
She finally calmed down enough to control her wings and wrapped them tightly around Pinkie and Rarity, pulling them closer and nuzzling contentedly up and down their necks, letting her mind wander.
“Counterclockwise!” she blurted suddenly, alert.
“Counter-what-now?” Pinkie asked, looking at her with some mild concern.
“Since I’m binding the arcane with the Elemental properties in an odd-balance, I need to stir counterclockwise,” she explained. “It was that simple…” It could also wait, though. So Twilight grinned and kissed Pinkie’s cheek, then Rarity’s, and settled back into the warmth of them.