Rainbow and Rarity Get Caught Up...Sort Of

Rainbow looked in the emergency case her other self had prepared, inside was a surprise, different items marked her and her five best friends. There was some sort of potion for her to down, and an amethyst marked “Rarity” in the case, those were the one her eyes jumped to, she would inspect the others later. Rainbow motioned for Rarity to come over to her and picked up the gemstone, only to see a note folded in such a way it was completely hidden by the gem when it was placed in its space in the case. She unfolded the note with one hand, which was actually much easier than she had anticipated.

“What is it, Rainbow, darling,” inquired Rarity as she drew near Rainbow, once the ivory mare had her head with arm’s reach Rainbow did what the note said and placed the gem on Rarity’s forehead just below her horn while uncorking the potion that had her name on it with her other hand, after quickly placing the note back in the box and grabbing the tonic for her, and down the concoction. The potion was simultaneously delicious and disgusting beyond description.

Both mares had their eyes glow white for three or four seconds before both went“Whoa,” in unison.

“Is everything okay,” asked Twilight.

“Yeah,” said Rainbow Quickly, “just had some memory issues earlier, decided to bring something to help fix the problem.”

“I didn’t know you had a memory contingency,” said Twilight with surprise.

“Yeah, not something I want to advertise,” said Rainbow, “my training taught me always to be prepared, so I have all sorts of contingencies, just in case.”

“Well, you are our master of covert operations,” said Twilight, “it makes sense. When we get out of here, read me on some of them and the reason for this one.”

“Sure thing,” said Rainbow, she then turned her attention to Rarity as she removed the gem from the white mare’s forehead and started putting everything away precisely as it had been in the case, minus the potion that was in the vial she had downed. “You okay, Rares?”

“Oh my, that was a rush,” said Rarity, looking a little dizzy. “Do we have copies of the memories of our other selves up to this point now?”

“No,” said Rainbow, “just the past four months, which should be more than enough for dealing with everything. Why did you ask?”

“The other me had a chant in there that caused a bit of a surge, apparently she wanted to make sure I know the nature of her pact; she didn’t make one with any malicious forces, the entity is more celestial in nature, her Opalescence is a celestial spirit, a rather odd one at that.”

“Our group of friends does seem to be filled with those kinds of individuals,” said Rainbow with a smirk. Rainbow then made sure to fold the note properly and place it where it was prior before placing the gem atop it. “Seems my other self went through some special training herself, I was informed of some things I need to do to get more details. How much you willing to bet Pinkie already knows we’re not the right version of her friends?”

“Not a bet I’m willing to make,” said Rarity, “I wonder what happened to our alternates.”

“Best, we not think about that, for the time being,” said Rainbow, “after we’re out of here and have discussed things with Twilight.”

“Ah, yes, good call,” said Rarity. “I feel a bit silly for not coming to that on my own.”

**********************************************

After a short rest (a little over an hour), Rainbow and Rarity went to check on things near the doorway at the other end of the room. Just beyond the door was another chamber, it looked quite large; just eyeballing it, the room seemed to be at least sixty feet long and around eighty feet wide. The room beyond looked like some kind of library; shelves covered the walls, and some of the center floor space, along with a light smattering of chairs and tables for reading.

“Twilight,” Rainbow called back, “it looks like the next room doesn’t have a buffer from us and is some kind of library.”

Twilight perked at this and rushed over to look at what Rainbow and Rarity were observing. “After we make sure that room is clear,” said Twilight in a giddy voice. “Then we’ll wait for AJ and Pinkie there; I think I have a spell that can bring them to us, but it will require me knowing their general location to us. I can probably modify it to make that a non-issue, but it could still probably be rather dangerous to do so.”

“Can’t we just use a communication spell of some kind to keep in touch with them,” inquired Rainbow.

“I...forgot to prep one of those today,” said Twilight, “it will take a few hours for me to reprepare all my spells.”

“I thought you could fire off any spell you wanted with the only mitigating factor being your personal magical energy,” said Rainbow nonchalantly. Rarity shot the azure mare a withering look of disapproval; she clearly took offense to Rainbow’s comment.

“With some spells that is the case,” said Twilight in a measured manner, “but most of the higher-end spells require specific, sometimes special preparations.”

Rainbow looked to the rest of their, admittedly odd, group before saying, “How much longer do you think the rest will need before we continue?”

“Maybe another ten to twenty minutes,” said Twilight. “I can start repreparing my spells once we make sure the next room is cleared out, some monsters are very good at hiding in plain sight.”

“Ah yes, I recall the room that was half-filled with mimics two months ago,” said Rarity, “in my defense I didn’t there would be more than one to a room at the time.”

“True, they usually don’t congregate into a singular location like that,” said Twilight, “we, that is to say, the other princesses and I, are investigating as best we can, I haven’t gotten any leads on that just yet.”