//------------------------------//
// Laundry Symbols 
// Story: The Best of Twilight Sparkle's Twilight Time 
// by Greatmewtwo 
//------------------------------//

	As she inserted the video clip from the class note in this third chapter of her DVD, Twilight was listening to an episode of Pat-Rats she had running as a background process on her computer, more specifically an episode where Patricia and Jimmy found themselves investigating the inside of a space shuttle and almost got sent to the moon.  She stopped the playback on the episode to focus on the next segment to her video.

"We always have to look our best," began Twilight.  "Often, this means taking care of our clothes and making sure we know how to wash them properly.  So Rarity came down to help me explain."
Her recording was quickly inserted and was soon followed with another segment from Twilight Time.
"Well, it's nice to be back with more Twilight Time. Our question today comes from @quibbl3r, and he says:"



"Dear Twilight,
I keep seeing these funny symbols on all my clothes. Are they some sort of fancy code that can be read by the new world order or something?"



"Well, @quibbl3r, this sounds more like a fashion and home economics question. Thankfully, today, I have Rarity down here to help me with this while she gets a mustard stain out of this carpet bag. I see them all the time on the tags of my shirts and pants, too, but I think one of my good friends, Rarity, can explain this rather...gladly. Right darling?"
"Why sure, Twilight." said Rarity coming into frame.
"Well, quibbl3r, darling, the symbols are actually shorthand laundry instructions. These are so that you and anyone else who washes your clothes so early in the morning can understand the way they need to be cleaned.  There are different symbols especially depending on what fabric it is and the state of the colors on the garment."
As she talked, Rarity showed her a laundry tag showcasing a sign depicting a hand in a bucket of water.
"You see this graphic with the hand in the bucket? That means you have to hand-wash it, not machine wash it."
She also pointed to a triangle on the same tag as she explained her thesis about what laundry symbols are.
"See this triangle and two bars? Well, this means that this wonderful graphic tee with a design from my sister's favorite show, Pat-Rats can be bleached, but only with non-chlorine bleach if it's that badly stained. This usually means using color-safe bleach, especially based on peroxide. You also see this square and circle with the dot? It means that you dry it at low heat, as is typical of knit garments.
Third, see this tag darling with the bucket and lines underneath? that means you can machine wash this either on the gentle or delicate setting, whatever your washing machine calls it."
Rarity also brought up to frame a few other unconventional fabrics to explain the subject of dry cleaning, a process by which clothes are cleaned without the use of actual water.
"Sometimes, on the trickiest of garments, a simple ring will tell you that you can only dry clean them, as in they have to be cleaned with waterless solvents such as perchlor-- what's this word?" Rarity stumbled.
"Perchloroethylene? PERC?" corrected Twiilght.
"Right, that, to maintain their integrity," she continued.  "This is why there are professional dry cleaning shops all around town that do this, such as with velvets, silks, acetates, wools, and other super-delicate fabrics."
Rarity put the fabrics down as she went on her very own monologue about the world of laundry.
"If you're wondering where I get all this information, darling, I was watching "Full Acres" when I was smaller, and then Sweetie Belle asked me to wash her favorite dress that she was going to wear for the formal. She asked me about what those symbols mean, but I knew no better. So, I just tossed it into the machine, threw some bleach on it to get it all really clean, but that dress was so battered and faded that it was a disaster. I lost five allowances just to replace it. And then, I found myself at the laundromat one day and noticed a quick reference sheet for most of the symbols. I realized that all garments need to be treated a certain way, especially depending on whether they are organic and/or synthetic materials, and how colored they are.  But anyway, that's a nice tip for life and life choices. I'll be here all this week, darlings, answering your fashion-related questions...or even longer if this stain doesn't come out."

Twilight was satisfied with the fact that this particular segment was one of the more popular ones, especially with the mentions of the Pat-Rats show that ran well into her middle school years.