Twilight Finds A Brick In Her Shower
"Ow! What the-?"
Twilight, her eyes squeezed shut as warm water showered upon her soapy mane, reached out blindly with her magic for the shower faucet. Eventually, she felt it in her grasp and turned it all the way to the right, shutting off the flow of water. Still suffering from soap-induced blindness, she reached a hoof up to grab at her towel hanging nearby and brought it to her head to dry off her mane and eliminate what remained of her shampoo from her eyes, lest they add even more annoyance to what a typical shower should ever bring. With her eyes finally clear of the stingy suds, she opened her eyes and turned her gaze downwards, curious as to what had mysteriously scratched her back hoof in the middle of her relaxing, afternoon shower.
A single, reddish brown brick sat interestingly on the floor of her shower.
Twilight blinked in surprise. The brick did not return the gesture.
Not to say the brick in of itself was anything interesting. She prodded it with a hoof, confirming from its slight movement that its density and weight matched that of an average brick. She rubbed the end of her hoof against it, confirming from its rough, coarse feel that its texture matched that of an average brick. She stared at it even harder, confirming once again from its rusty hue that its color indeed matched that of an average brick. No, the brick itself was... quite normal really.
It was the fact that it was sitting on the floor of her shower that perplexed her.
"Spike?"
She called out hesitantly to her faithful, dragon assistant. No response. Twilight kept her gaze glued to the brick as if it might disappear should she blink. She reached out with her magic and cautiously scanned the foreign object. Any hidden enchantments? No. Any convincing illusion spells? Nuhuh. Any latent mana signatures that might indicate a recent teleportation, transmutation, or other magical means by which a perfectly normal brick could be mysteriously moved into her shower? Nope, nope, and nope.
"Spike!"
"... Yeah, what is it Twilight?" Spike's voice rang out from behind the closed bathroom door. There was some rustling as Twilight imagined Spike was hastily extracting himself from his basket where he had been reading his Power Ponies comic just minutes prior. "Is something wrong?" After several seconds, Spike finally burst into the bathroom. As predicted, he was still carrying his beloved comic in his claws. Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Well no, not exactly." After spinning her towel around her lower body a few more times to remove the last of the potentially dripping water from her coat, she carefully stepped out of the shower to give Spike a clear view of the extremely ordinary brick sitting in her shower.
Twilight heard Spike let out a quiet gasp, and she quickly turned to face him, letting her catch the quickest flash of recognition within his emerald eyes before they darted up to meet hers. "Uh, why is there a brick in your shower?"
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her number one assistant before turning back to the brick. "Honestly, I have no idea. I was in the middle of my shower when I accidentally stepped on it. I guess I didn't see it when I stepped in at first cause, well, I'm not really expecting anything to be sitting on the shower floor since I always keep the whole bathroom organized. Much less a brick."
Spike walked up to the shower and picked up the incongruous, rectangular anomaly and made a show of inspecting it in his claws. Twilight raised an eyebrow; having raised the young drake, she knew all there was to how he acted when he was trying to hide something.
He was definitely trying to hide something.
"Hmm..." Spike tossed the brick back and forth between his claws. Twilight noticed with each pass, he took a discrete step closer to the door. "I mean, I don't know what to tell you Twilight. It's just a completely, normal brick."
"Spike..." Twilight took a step closer, her tone carrying a serious edge that made Spike freeze in his tracks. "What aren't you telling me?"
Spike's eyes widened, and he lifted both claws defensively. "No- nothing!"
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Spike, come on. We're the only ones that live here in the library. The only way a brick can make its way into our shower is if either of us put it there ourselves, –and I know I didn't cause I haven't gone in there since this morning when there wasn't a brick there– or Pinkie is up to her usual-."
"-Usual what, Twilight?" Pinkie curiously inquired as she trotted out from behind Twilight, giving the purple pair a couple of heart attacks.
Twilight, after taking a few breaths to calm her now racing heart, leveled her gaze towards the pink intruder. She snatched the brick out of Spike's claw with her magic and hovered it in front of her. "Pinkie, did you put this brick in my shower?"
Pinkie stared long and hard at the brick for several seconds, her eyes narrowing in intense focus before she let out a giggle. "Nope!" She looked up and put a hoof to her chin in thought. "Though now that you mention it, this gives me an amazing idea for how to give Dashie her next pie..."
Twilight internally cringed and made a note to apologize to her polychromatic pegasus friend for any future inconveniences she might have just doomed her to. "You're absolutely sure? Pinkie Promise?"
"Yepperooni! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Pinkie smoothly carried out the signature movements of her famed Pinkie Promise, eliciting a wince from Twilight as she, as usual, bashed a hoof into her still-open eye with zero reaction. Twilight and Spike watched in silent confusion as she proceeded to casually trot out the bathroom and down the library's stairs to the entrance as if spontaneously manifesting oneself in somepony else's bathroom was a normal day-to-day occurrence, all the while humming one of her many joyous tunes.
As per long-time habit, Twilight shook off the desire to question Pinkie's shenanigans any further and turned back to face Spike. "Alright Spike, out with it. You're the only other creature living with me..." She caught Spike spareing a glance back at Owlowicious's currently empty cage. "... that can actually open the bathroom door. Come on, if it really was you, I'm not mad or anything. I just... really want to know."
Spike maintained eye contact with her for a few more brave seconds before slumping down in defeat. "Yeah, it was me, sorry Twilight. I just wanted to see if I could melt a brick with my flames, but it caught on fire so I panicked and used your shower to put it out."
Twilight blinked. Bricks could catch fire? To be fair, Spike's flames were magical in nature, so it wasn't exactly out of the question. Not to mention she knew Spike's tendency to act on curious impulse. "That's an... interesting experiment. Why didn't you just use the sink?"
"... I, uhm, panicked?"
Twilight hummed in thought. It wouldn't really do anypony any good to chastise the young drake for trying an experiment far more tame than the ones she used to get away with as a filly. Besides, no one was hurt. Much. "Mmmm fair enough. Next time you want to experiment your dragon fire like that though, please don't do it in our very wooden and paper-filled library home, alright?" She reached out with a foreleg and pulled the little dragon into a quick hug.
Spike squirmed awkwardly in her grip a little before pushing away. "Yeah, yeah, thanks Twilight. Don't worry, I'll remember next time."
The two of them stood there in silence for a bit, not knowing what to do next now that the mystery had been solved, until Spike spoke up.
"Well, I'm gonna go, uh, put the brick back where I found it, if that's alright with you... And run some last few errands too."
"Oh! Alright then, Spike." Twilight gently floated the brick back into Spike's claws. "Just be back in time for dinner, okay?"
"Will do! See ya, Twi!" Spike scampered down the stairs and out the library, shutting the door behind him. Twilight giggled and rolled her eyes, turning back to her shower. Small particles of red powder still remained on its floor, so she briefly turned the water on again to wash them away. As she watched them spiral down the drain, she turned her thoughts back to her initial brick sighting.
Now that she thought of it, the brick had been... perfectly brick-colored. Nothing but brownish-red hues. This was completely normal for your average brick, but hadn't Spike been trying to burn it with his flames?
She pondered it for a few more moments before chuckling and closing her eyes. Nope. Magical flames. Do not question now. Can look into it some other arbitrary time. Need to lay down and read. With that final thought, Twilight trotted out the bathroom and shut the door, eager to shove all mysterious-brick-in-shower incidents far back in the recess of her mind as she eyed the comforting prospect of reading a book in bed.
Spike tip-toed slowly up the steps to the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse, clutching the brick tightly to his chest. He crept right up to the edge of the door frame and rapt against the wall beside it. He lowered his voice down to a whisper. "Pssst... you in here?"
After a few seconds of silence, he felt matching hoof taps against the other side of the wall, and a soft, squeaky voice quietly sounded out.
"Yeah, I'm here Spike."
Letting out a sigh of relief, Spike walked all the way into the clubhouse. A lone unicorn filly with white fur and a purple and pink mane sat against one of the room's side walls, a saddlebag laying in front of her. "Hey Sweetie Belle. Were you... able to get yours?"
Sweetie nodded and lit her horn, bathing the room in a dim, light-green glow. With her magic, she opened her saddlebag and floated out a shiny, cylindrical object about the same length as a rolled up scroll. "I had to be real sneaky, Rarity's usually always keeps these in a locked box, but she was so tired last night from wrapping up her winter fashion line that she forgot to lock it. I only grabbed one, so she doesn't suspect anything."
Spike chuckled quietly. "Twilight keeps them locked away as well, but unfortunately she never ever forgets to lock it." He snickered and lifted his claw, drawing the filly's attention to the sharp tips on his fingers. "Thankfully, these babies have gotten especially good at picking locks."
He sat down across from Sweetie Belle and placed the brick in front of him. She opened her mouth to speak, but Spike raised his index finger to shush her. Carefully, he grasped both ends of the brick and pulled hard. The lid of the convincingly fake brick popped off, revealing a hidden cavity in the center. With the additional dexterity granted by his fingers, he reached in the gap and tugged out the extremely folded magazine from within.
"I grabbed the thinnest one since that was the only one that could fit in here." He unfolded the entire thing and began pressing down on it with his claws to flatten it out. "Oh, you should've been there! Twilight came home earlier than usual, right when I managed to close the lid on it. I got scared and just hid it in her shower, but she still found it!"
Sweetie gasped and put her hooves to her mouth in shock. "Nooo! Did she find out?"
Spike shook his head and puffed his chest proudly. "Nope, turns out these fake bricks are top quality! Don't know why Applejack has so many of these, but if you ever need one in the future, she's your best bet. Twilight totally bought my lie about it too."
"Whew, that's a relief." Sweetie placed the cylinder on the ground and used her magic to unroll it, revealing it to also be a magazine. She pressed it with her hooves a bit to flatten it as well.
Sweetie and Spike stepped back to admire their spoils. Two magazines, one with an uncountable amount of creases all over it, rested on the floor of the clubhouse. On the top of both read in bold, stylish font: "Canterlot's Hottest".
Too bad neither of them knew what that meant.
"Let's see what secret mysteries our sisters have been reading about that they don't want us to find out."