Aria was shocked. Doc actually had a lab. An honest to goodness, Tesla coils shooting lightning, supercomputers humming, tables covered in jars, shelves of books, fluorescent lights buzzing, glass cases sealed with forbidden artifacts, bat cave worthy lab.
“The lab is a clean area, we have to strip down to get through the airlock and decontamination station. Just underwear will be fine.”
With that, Doc stepped into the airlock, removing her pants and pulling her hoodie over her head. As it popped over her head, her blonde hair popped off as well, revealing her long royal blue hair with a pink and purple stripe pinned up to fit underneath the wig. She looked surprised at the wig on the ground.
“Huh? Oh, forgot I was wearing that.”
Aria stared in shock as she found herself looking at Twilight Sparkle.
“It doesn’t bother you, does it? Someone posted a weird video of a girl who looked like me on youtube a few months back so I had to start wearing a wig to avoid attention.”
Aria’s jaw continued to stay dropped as she came to terms with who she was talking to. Absentmindedly she found herself stripping down as well. Twilight Sparkle, Doc, pushed the decon button. Air rushed down from the ceiling along with a fine mist of something vaguely lavender scented. That done, they walked into the lab, where Doc handed her a lab coat off the rack by the exit.
“I usually don’t wear stuff underneath. Just more stuff to have to disinfect later. Do you mind?”
Aria shook her head as she took in more of the lab. Odd objects behind glass containers, wooden crates filled with hay and presumably other things, and other clearly arcane objects filled the shelves. On the wall was a poster that said “Vote Cthulhu 2012: Why vote for the lesser evil?” She chose her words very carefully as she watched the purple girl put her hair up in a well-practiced bun.
“I, uh, know the girl who looks like you.”
“Oh, I know. Canterlot High did an admirable job of suppressing just what happened at the concert. I had to dig into phone archives and GPS positions just to figure out what students were there. You, Miss Blaze, were on the stage at the time of the thaumaturgical surge.”
No question at all in the statement. Aria found her blood run cold. Where was she? Who knew she was here?
“There’s no need to look so panicked Aria!” added Doc, as she saw Aria’s pupils dilate. “I’m just trying to figure out what’s been happening around town.” She turned over to her Keurig. “Want a coffee?”
Panic temporarily averted, Aria told Doc about her magical pony counterpart, and about the world she came from over a chai latte. Doc took it fairly well.
“That would explain the weird thaum readings I’ve been getting, especially from the Principal and her sister. There’s only a little under a dozen people in the whole town other than me who can even move the meter.” She said, as she looked down at her small portable multimeter looking device. “On that note, you don’t even register on it. Near as I can tell you and your two friends are just normal girls. Those six on the other hand…”
Just normal girls. That stung more than Aria thought it would. Doc punched more numbers into her thingie.
“They were definitely at the epicenter of the incident.”
She snapped her fingers twice in quick succession. A spot light focused on a nearby glass case containing the remnants of two shattered red gemstones.
“I’m not sure how, but these seem to be a part of it.”
Aria’s heart skipped a beat as she stared at her shattered pendant. Hers was the one on the left, she could feel it. In the immediate aftermath of the concert coming off nearly becoming gods, it felt dead to her, cold, but here she could feel the faintest stir as it called out to her like a wounded bird. Is that what Adagio felt in her gem as she held it? The dying pain of a shattered part of her soul? How could she stand it?
“Those… are ours,” she said quietly.
"Pardon?”
“Those are our pendants. By getting people to fight and argue we were able to gather the energy.”
Aria found herself surprisingly forthcoming with Doc. It was like she felt at ease in her company. She took another sip of coffee.
“Those six plus your doppelganger managed to turn the magic against us and destroy our gems.”
Aria was sad, almost to tears at the memory of the loss of her pendant. She took another sip of coffee. It was quite good. Had a bit more kick to it than the stuff she was used to. Doc leaned in close to her face and rubbed her thumb across Aria’s cheek below her eye. There was a tear there she hadn’t realized fell.
“Shush, it’s ok. I’ll make everything better.”
And with that Doc leaned in and kissed Aria. Muffled sounds escaped her lips, but they were definitely not protests.
Back in the diner, Adagio and Sonata were out in front cleaning up booths. It was so rare for Aria to make a friend that they let her take off. It had been less than an hour since she left. Sonata continued to giggle about it.
“I’ve never seen her talk with anyone other than us more than two sentences in a row!”
“I know.” She chewed on the side of her index finger.
“Maybe she’ll stop being so grumpy now that she has a friend!” offered Sonata.
Anon walked out of the kitchen, cleanup complete. Yawning, he added his two cents.
“That was quite possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”
As if on cue, Aria walked back into the diner. Her twin ponytails were now pulled back into a hasty single. She looked slightly frazzled, a little confused. As Anon approached her, he thought he smelled vodka.
“You ok Aria? How was your play date?”
“Umm, it was good?” she said not completely convinced. She blushed. “We’re gonna hang out again tomorrow. I think I need to take a shower.”
Adagio, Sonata, and Anon were confused.