//------------------------------// // RD and Twi in the Lab // Story: Ponyfeathers // by SaintThunder //------------------------------// Three months ago, on a Saturday... Rainbow Dash skidded into a muddy landing in front of the grand tree that housed the library. Buzzing with energy, the filly knocked thrice on the topmost door, briefly marking it with muddy hoofprints until the rain washed them away. “Yo, anypony in there?” she yelled. No reply. Which was strange, considering that Twilight should have expected her to be here. She couldn’t have forgotten what TODAY was... Could she? Rainbow knocked thrice more. The glass in the door flicked to yellow, blinding her momentarily. When her eyes adjusted, the door was open, a purple and green baby dragon on the other side. “Hey Spike,” greeted Rainbow. “Is Twilight around? I’m here for--” “Daring Do and the Alicorn Throne, yeah she told me.” Spike didn’t seem too enthused to see her. “She didn’t tell me you’d show up at five in the morning, though.” Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck, smearing mud all over her mane. Her grin indicated that she didn’t mind in the slightest. “Ahehe, well, I wanted to get it as early as possible, so I came here straight after my team finished the storm.” Spike merely sighed. He turned and walked toward a desk near the stairs. “Alright. Come on in, then.” Rainbow looked down at herself. Rather than cleaning her, the rain seemed to be making her muddier. “Uh, got a towel in there, Spike?” “Don’t need one. Twilight put up an anti-weather shield around the whole tree.” Spike flapped his claw in a dismissive gesture. “Just walk in and it should clean you right up.” The blue-black-and-brown pegasus passed through the doorway, and all the dirt and grime stuck to her fur melted right off with a pink light, piling up just outside the barrier. “Whoa. That’s some spell. Dried me off, too, heh.” “Eh, it’s cool, but it’s basic.” Spike had moved on to one of the bookshelves, searching the bottom row. “Pretty much any unicorn can learn it. Most don’t though.” “Why not?” Rainbow, crouched on the welcome mat, was amusing herself with the barrier, sticking her hoof in and out and watching the rain splatter into pink lights on its invisible surface. “Well, a lot of unicorns live in Canterlot,” explained Spike. “With paved roads, the whole mud thing isn’t a problem. Many also know the advanced version of the spell, which shields just the caster. Not to mention the unicorns outside of Canterlot who can’t afford magic school...” His claw came to a reddish-brown book. The golden lettering on its spine read Daring Do and the Alicorn Throne. “Got it!” He grabbed it and trotted back to the desk. Taking a suspiciously familiar purple quill from the wall drawer adjacent, Spike sat down on a dark oak stool and placed the book in his lap. Rainbow ceased messing with the anti-weather shield and cantered over to stand beside him. Purple claws opened another book on top of the desk, revealing a list of dates, names and book titles. Spike wrote in Rainbow Dash and the book she borrowed just under Pinkie Pie’s, who appeared to have borrowed a copy of How To Train Your Gator: A Reference Guide the day before. “There ya go, one brand new copy of the latest Daring Do. Now if there isn’t anything else, I’m” —the little dragon yawned, stretching his tiny forelimbs— “going back to bed. See ya later Rainbow.” He hopped off the stool, leaving the novel on its seat, and sauntered off. Rainbow Dash took Daring Do and the Alicorn Throne in her wingtips and opened it immediately. There was no time for hysterical fangirling; there was a novel to be read, dammit, and it will be read NOW. “Hey Spike, can I crash here for a bit?” she called after Spike, eyes still on the page. “It’s still raining outside and I don’t want this to get wet.” The dragon had disappeared, but his voice came from the other room, affirming that she could. Permission granted, Rainbow whooped and backflipped onto the stool, leaning back into the closed library record book on the desk. Her eyes quickly picked up where she left off, and she soon lost herself in the adventure once more. Rainbow Dash was content. There was nothing better than sitting down with a good book and listening to the rain pitter-patter on the windows, the occasional thunderclap sending shocks of awe through her nerves. She envied the ground-dwellers; cloud homes are moved above the cloud layer during storms (they’d be destroyed otherwise), so Rainbow rarely experienced the calming monotonous chorus of rain. Daring Do had just been ambushed by Zebrican assassins on top of a crashing zepplin when Rainbow heard hoofsteps over the rain. “Hey Rainbow, you’re here early,” A purple alicorn dressed in a dark blue hoodie had appeared at the top of the basement stairs. An open wooden crate was on her back, held in place by her wings. “Got your book?” “Yup. I didn’t want it to get wet, and that storm’s gonna last for about. . .” Rainbow put a hoof to her chin. “What time is it?” “Around 6:30,” replied Twilight. “Another hour or so, then. Have to make up for missing last week’s shower.” She punctuated her sentence with a page flip. “So did you finish the book already?” “Rainbow, it came in just last night. Even if I had started when I got it, I wouldn’t have finished.” Twilight looked around the circumference of the library. “Besides, I wanted you to read it first.” With a pause and a frown, she trotted into the other room right next to the stairs. Rainbow's eyes narrowed. Me? Read Daring Do before the eggiest egghead in all of Equestria? She smirked to herself. I must be one awesome friend. Daring had just disappeared into the thick jungle around the crash site when the alicorn returned with her crate half-filled with glowing white jars. Rainbow spotted them for only a moment, but their presence prompted her to actually close the book, leaving a feather to mark her place. "Are those jars of liquid light, Twi?" "Yup." Twilight tilted the crate left, then right, then again to the left; its contents were constantly shifting. This balancing act must've taken up all her concentration, since she didn't launch into a long-winded technobabble-filled explanation as to what she was going to do with gratuitous amounts of pure, concentrated star magic. But for once, Rainbow Dash actually wanted to know. "Hope you're not planning on burning down Mi Quesa Su Quesa," she teased as she hopped off the stool, leaving the novel on its seat. "Rainbow Dash!" The outburst claimed the last of Twilight's stability, tipping the fragile wooden crate and its cargo to the hardwood floor. The crate fell a mere two vertical inches from its starting point, landing square on Rainbow's withers. Twilight didn't even see her move. "That," said Rainbow as she rose from her crouching pose, "could've been bad." Understatement of the year. But as all the cool and radical ponies knew, understatements were the coolest and most radical phrases known to ponykind. "Glad I had Equestria's fastest pegasus here to save my flank." Twilight stretched a wing out, but Rainbow backed away, shielding the box with her wings. "Oh no, I am not letting you torch my second-favorite Mexicoltan restaurant." "Please, Rainbow. I would never be so barbaric," said Twilight, mock frown on her face. She flapped her extended wing. Rainbow didn't budge. "Attempted arson or not, I think I'd better hold onto this." Twilight opened her mouth in protest, but a blue hoof was quick to silence it. "You're new to this whole wing thing, newbie, and I might not be so quick next time." A pause. "Whoa. Remind me never to say that ever again." The alicorn frowned for real this time, but otherwise retracted her wing in defeat. She retreated down the stairs, prompting Rainbow to do the same. The tunnel down was barely lit. The average pony would think that the jars would light the way despite being behind both Twilight and herself, but as an experienced weather pony who'd been in the business ever since she was old enough to work, Rainbow Dash knew better. The jars were built to contain light: if they glowed more than they were supposed to, all of it would "leak" out. The end of the wooden stairs lead to the start of a short rocky ledge, which in turn lead to more stairs. Had Rainbow not been laden with a crate full of potentially volatile materials, she would have already raced to the bottom. However, her curiosity from before had not been sated, and the long walk incited the pegasus to do the one thing she never thought she would do: talk science with Twilight Sparkle and actually pay attention. "Let's get real, Twi: What's with the goods?" said Rainbow in her most thuggish voice. "The 'goods' are for the experimental stage of my thesis on the properties of light. Er, well, they're supposed to be. As I'm sure you can tell, I haven't refined the substance just yet." Rainbow was surprised to have an actual rebuttal. "Why didn't you just buy red ones? They're almost as cheap and aren't strong enough to explode when you magic them up." "I needed all seven colors. You see, the experiment that I'm about to perform (based on Cat Colt's Wave Theory of Light) is dependent on wavelength, and the raw light was more economical than industry-grade liquid rainbow, so I got that instead." The pair made the final turn to the basement floor. Twilight’s horn glowed a soft pink, and the whole room undimmed, lit by an unseen light source. “Huh,” said Rainbow. “It’s… less?” Yet another understatement by Ponyville’s self-proclaimed “most awesome” pony. The earthen root-thorned walls were completely bare, aside from a pull-down white screen large enough to drape over a small elephant; a far-cry from the various bookshelves, machines and pipes that formerly occupied them. In the center sat a rectangular cannon wired up to a generator and what looked like two front halves of a bike welded together in the middle. A few feet to its left was a rusty contraption all too familiar to the weather pony in Rainbow Dash. The seven cylindrical tanks; the complicated dials and levers; the giant fly wheel in the rear; she felt like it was her first day at work again. “Ah, the rainbow refiner, my old nemesis.” Rainbow sighed to herself. “Dad thought it was hilarious; Rainbow makin’ rainbows.” She went up to it and rubbed a dusty gauge with the back of her fetlock. Twilight cast a worried glance over the machine. “I hope it still works. I spent the last two weeks going through all the paperwork just to get it delivered here.” “That’s Cloudsdale for ya. E. U. P. ain’t nothin’ to them. If it wasn't for that horn on your head, you'da had it in a few days.” Rainbow stomped a hoof at the word nothing, eliciting a curious Twilight to give her an incredulous look: the Element of Loyalty defying her element was a rare event. “Don’t get me wrong; I love my city, but my city’s gotta do some lovin’ back.” “Strange, they seemed friendly enough to me,” replied Twilight. Rainbow scoffed. “That’s because you’re a princess; it’s like, illegal to be mean to you. Still, they do find ways...” She sauntered over to the cannon. “I thought you said you weren’t torching anything.” Twilight merely rolled her eyes. “This cannon uses the liquid light, true, but we’re not about to destroy the most hated, vile, and disgusting excuse for a restaurant Equestria has ever had the displeasure of giving a business permit to; it’s for SCIENCE!” "Pfft, spewing your guts out of both ends for three hours is part of the experience Twi; you should appreciate Mexicoltan culture more," said Rainbow. She slid the crate from her withers down on the floor next to the refiner, using her free wing as a ramp. "So, how's this experiment gonna go down?" "Well," explained Twilight, "after we refine the liquid light into its components, we'll load them one by one into this cannon and fire it at that screen there." Rainbow circled around the cannon to its business end. "Through this thing?" she exclaimed as she pointed at the metal plate covering the opening. Upon closer inspection, the plate had two very tiny holes placed very closely together at its center. "Yes." Rainbow looked at the cannon, then at the screen, then at the cannon again. "I don't think there's enough room in here for the light to scatter." Bad things happened when liquid light wasn't allowed to dissipate properly; things that went fwoosh and oh Celestia it burns. "Not to worry, Rainbow, I'm prepared for ANYTHING." Charging up her horn with pure arcane energy, Twilight cast -- no, blasted a laser beam right at the stark white screen. The pink ray of death splashed on its surface. . . and did nothing. Rainbow, who had ducked underneath the cannon, peered out, mouth agape. "This, my fine feathered friend" said Twilight, horn still a-smoke, "is a chainmail sheet of one hundred percent mithril, crafted from the scales of the last White Dragon of Equestria: Grant, The Winter Unending." "Whoa." Rainbow crawled out of cover. "Epic." She brushed her hoof over its smooth, yet bumpy woven rings; the pegasus hadn't heard of Grad something or other, but any story involving dragons tended to have lots of action in it. "I'm sure that the screen can prevent most, if not all disasters. I shrunk down the other equipment in here just in case though." Twilight slid a jar into a space under the refiner, and stepped on the loading pedal. "Now, just how do I work this thing..." In a flash, three dozen books popped into existence around the alicorn. They arranged themselves in a rising spiral pattern. "Uh, Twi?" Rainbow Dash hopped and glided to her purple friend. "Maybe you should let an expert handle that." She tried to push Twilight aside, but the princess stood her ground, nose in book. "No no, it's alright; I don't want to interrupt your reading." She flipped through Luminary Refiner Operator's Manual I, briefly looking over the diagrams. "Besides, it's a great learning experience." Rainbow didn't argue; the refiner was a complicated machine, and she had no love for rainbow crafting. Better to leave Twilight alone and get back to Daring Do. "I, uh, think I'll stay and help you." What. "Books don't always cover everything." Bad idea BAD IDEA-- "Nonsense." Twilight looked ready to burn her at the stake. "These manuals were written by the inventor himself; they can't possibly have missed anything." Not that Rainbow would know; everything she knew about the refiner came from her dad and their co-workers. "Er, well, just in case then. Of fire. That thing's a hunk o' junk; it could burst into flame even if you were using it normally." "I told you, Rainbow, I am PREPARED. No need to fuss about me, I'll be FINE." Twilight pulled the ignition lever, and the refiner coughed to life. Alternating between book and gauge, the alicorn pushed buttons and flipped switches, not even looking to see if Rainbow had indeed gone back upstairs. Quite unnaturally for the pegasus, she hadn't. Pfft. Suit yerself, your Eggheadiness. Probably wouldn't have been that cool anyway... "Ya know Rainbow," said Twilight, still working the machine, "if I didn't know any better, I'd think that you actually wanted to see my experiment." "What? Heck. No." Rainbow pushed off the step, gliding next to Twilight's face. "YOU'RE Princess Egghead, not me. I'm just... lookin' out for ya, got it?" She punctuated her sentence with a light-hearted jab at the other mare's furry chest. "Uh-huh." Twilight had that teasing smile again. "Hmm, maybe I COULD use some of your expertise." She nudged Rainbow with her wing. "Duh," replied Rainbow. She reached across Twilight and pulled a lever. "An expert wouldn't stop to chat with friends while working." She quickly looked at the pressure gauge, and turned a dial back with two primaries. "You have to constantly monitor the pressure AND the centrifuge so it doesn't like, explode." Twilight merely blushed. "Ehehe, sorry. Let's just... get this done." Her eyes went from book to book, occasionally checking gauges as Rainbow took over. The colorful pegasus worked with robot-like precision, gained over two years of being behind the rainbow refiner. As the machine chugged and whirred and tooted, the clear glass tanks, one by one, slowly filled with luminescent fluid. When the loaded jar was depleted, Rainbow swiftly replaced it, and began the process again. "Tanks're full." Rainbow shut off the machine. Twilight floated down empty jars from upstairs, and both mares fitted tubes to the tanks and drained them. Rainbow slammed a lid onto a purple filled jar, taking care not to let any light escape. "You bought a TON of this stuff, Twi. You still have a jar left over." She slid it next to the others, all segregated by color. "Like I said. Always. Prepared." Twilight closed the last purple jar, and looked over the colors lighting up her basement floor. "Thirty-five in all. Funny how it's all proportioned like that." "Yep. Always a one-to-seven ratio. Makes sense, if ya think about it." Rainbow stretched her wings, cracking joints and pulling them to their limits. "Cannon time?" "Cannon time." Twilight chose a jar from the red pile and slid it to the makeshift cannon. "Ugh, I should have made a loading mechanism for this thing." She awkwardly lifted the jar and flipped it so that the covered end was on top of the hole. Holding the jar with both hooves, she used her horn to pop off the lid. Thankfully, none of the substance spilled out. "Phew," went Twilight, wiping the sweat from her brow. "No accidents so far." Going around, she mounted the strange four-pedaled bicycle and started pedaling. kssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssHMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM The hum of the generator shut out all other sounds. As Twilight pedaled faster, the hum got louder, and soon, the business end of the cannon glowed with red light. "Now pant it just pant needs one pant last pant PUSH!" PSSHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW The laser hit the dragonmail screen for a fraction of a second, and dissipated just as quickly. "That's it?" gasped Twilight as she fell off the double bike. "That can't be it, I didn't see... Rainbow, did you see it?" The mare merely shrugged. "I may have the eyes of a hawk, but I didn't see it. That is some crazy stuff." "No... NO. I have to try again. Let me get my camera..." Twilight trotted to a seemingly empty spot in the room, facing the wall. A flash of her horn conjured up a wooden drawer, but without a magical pop; more like a shwoomp. So she really DID shrink down everything, thought Rainbow. Twi's cooler than I thought. Would've been cooler if... "Hey, uh, Twi? What was it that we were supposed to see?" Twilight rummaged through the drawer, focused on finding the camera. "A diffraction pattern. My hypothesis was that such a pattern would still be created despite the density of the light used." Rainbow didn't know what a diffraction pattern was, but a rainbow was sort of like a pattern, and both had something to do with light. "Hey Twi, Sonic Rainbooms are light, right?" "Well, magically generated light, but yes, I suppose they are." Twilight unshrunk another drawer and kinesis'd her way through its contents. "Could I, say, make this duh-frac-ton pattern with one?" The question gave the alicorn pause. "Firstly, it's dih-frac-shun, and secondly, you'd need two, set off right next to each other. Seeing as you're the only pegasus in Equestria that can do one, I'd say it's next to impossible." Rainbow scoffed. "Impossible? Don't you know who you're talking to? I'm Rainbow Dash, greatest flyer in all of Equestria!" She pounded a wing-fist into her wing-palm. "Challenge accepted."