Quick Silver’s opponent silently watched her. Years of experience had made them a formidable foe. They were ruthless. They were unrelenting. They were…
The cat blinked. After a second the mare spoke.
“Mr. Cat. You blinked first. I win.”
Mr. Cat for his part chose to ignore this declaration of victory by beginning to clean himself. Quick Silver was familiar with this tactic of his. Always moving the goal posts to avoid admitting defeat.
The mare got up from the cushion on the floor that she’d been resting on and left her gray tabby to his cleaning. Slowly she walked out the back door of her cottage on the palace grounds. It was a modest, single story, five room affair of dressed stone with a slate roof. Bloodfeather and Phoenix lived in apartments/suites in the palace, but the pale gray earth pony preferred the cottage for a couple reasons:
First she preferred the calm of the cottage. With its hedges, garden and small grove of chestnut trees in front of it one could almost imagine themselves living out in the countryside. Only the hourly sound of the clock tower chiming. The occasional fanfare of trumpets from the court yard, or the sound of troops drilling shattered the illusion.
Second there was outbuilding that was part of the cottage property. These two buildings had once belonged to one of the master groundskeeper. The current master groundskeeper lived in an apartment in the palace. The outbuilding had been the main shed for storing gardening tools, but that too had been replaced by a larger, purpose-built structure on the palace grounds. The shed was a simple building constructed of field stones and stout timbers. Five heavily framed windows provided natural light to the interior. It was a two room affair with its own manual water pump inside it. Later on a small water cistern had been added. Quick Silver had included lockable window shutters and stout iron bound door with a tumbler lock when she moved in.
With Celestia’s permission she’d converted the shed into her own chemistry and alchemic laboratory. The smaller room, which had its own lockable door, was a storage room where the mare stored the various chemicals and components in several cabinets. The larger room is where she conducted her experiments.
Quick Silver was careful and methodical in her research, but still some of her studies were very experimental. As result several of her projects had created loud, noxious, and smoky events. This had required the mare on few occasions to replace windows and make other repairs to the shed.
At the moment the mare’s current project was a more sedate thing. A simple distillation of a solution for future projects. The final step was in progress. A slow filtering of the fluid through active charcoal. The final product was collecting in a waiting flask beneath the filter.
The mare entered her laboratory and confirmed that her current project was progressing according to plan. Satisfied with its progress she reviewed her notes for a future project and made an entry in her lab journal. With this accomplished she left the shed and locked it.
Reentering the sparsely furnished main room of the cottage she paused to look at the clock on the mantle. She was suppose to meet with Bloodfeather in a few minutes. The two of them were having lunch in town and then were going to do some window shopping. The pegasus mare was on a mission to find them some in new dresses for them to wear to the Fall Formal in Palace in a few months, and she wanted to beat the rush and get their orders in early.
Quick Silver wasn’t really that interested in fashion, but mattered a lot to her teammate and friend, and Bloodfeather did have an eye for it. Besides it was a chance for them to spend time together.
Herself along with the rest of her teammates was not happy with their involuntary vacation