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// Cat Litter 
// Story: The Best of Twilight Sparkle's Twilight Time 
// by Greatmewtwo 
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	One of the few other questions she incorporated that did not involve food this time was a question about household objects.  The idea of cat litter almost never arose to Twilight, except in cases where she was stuck watching Rarity's cat, Opalescence, in recent days.  Reading at the library also revealed to her recently that with its ability to absorb liquids and odors, cat litter might have uses beyond the litter box.  Her response to such a question went as followed:

"It's funny how we never think about cat litter having more uses than just the litter box.  If you think about the fact that it's primarily made of diatomaceous earth and baking soda most of the time, you can take advantage of its absorbency and deodorization and use it in more situations.  I've recently seen my friend, Big Macintosh, use it to sop up grease and chemical spills that would otherwise make their way into the sewer system undesirably.  But anyway, here's my next Twilight Time."

"Sorry for the Twilight Time hiatus as of last Thursday, but I'm back, and I'm still in person. Today's question comes in from @flitter.sitter and she says:"



Dear Twilight,
I accidentally spilled my juice into my cat's litter box. How does that cat litter actually clump?



"Well, I wouldn't know too much about cats, but cat litter is a different story," started Twilight as she presented a large white and green bag of cat litter.
"For at least the last thirty years, most commercial cat litter has been made with clay and diatomaceous earth."
As she explained, her lavender hand reached into the bulky paper bag and extracted mostly grayed gravels.  She showed how gritty the cat litter truly was, and even had a beaker filled with distilled water beside her for another experiment.
"Some of the most basic cat litters don't clump, but they still absorb water much better than the sand or dirt that a cat will use if given the chance."
She poured the beaker's contents upon two forms of cat litter to demonstrate how absorbent the both of them are nonetheless.  On one side of the frame, the water only seemed to glide off the litter, while the litter on the other side absorbed it rather quickly and formed a mass upon itself.  
"The clays and diatomaceous earth that make up these cat litters absorb liquids and expand in such a way where it makes cleanup that relatively easy. The clumping litters will usually have something like sodium bentonite in them as the most absorbent clay. However, because of this, you can't flush the mess all down the toilet; stuff that expands like that can do a real number on your plumbing."
Right then, Twilight reached for several other plastic bags of cat litter and presented them in frame.  Though not as affordable, she figured that she should buy versions of cat litter that were either antiquated or specialized to educate her viewers about their options. 
"If you think earthly cat litter is too much of a problem, especially if your pet has allergies or sensitivities to its ingredients, there are other alternatives. You have cat litter also based in plant material as biodegradable such as paper, corncobs, and wood, and even cat litter based in silica gel that's super absorbent, super odorless, and long-lasting in its absorbency and odor control."
As the video clip closed, Twilight was shown calling out to Rarity's cat, apparently following the formation of an otherwise painless switch of her own cat litter to something of her design. 
"Wait...oh, Opal!"