Chapter 1: The Special Guest
Scootaloo beat her small orange wings maniacally, propelling her at full speed on her four-wheeled scooter.
“Hey Scootaloo wait up!” Sweetie Belle shouted as she and Apple Bloom galloped after the orange filly.
“Then hurry up slowpokes!” Scootaloo yelled back as the other two fillies caught up with her.
“What’s tha commotion about anyways?” Apple Bloom questioned in-between huffing and puffing.
“We have a special guest coming today! And Ms. Cheerilee promised that if we volunteered for him we’d get no homework!” Scootaloo replied in an upbeat tone.
Sweetie Belle walked past the two fillies looking back at them, “But why are you in such a hurry? I’m sure he’ll give everypony a chance to try whatever he has out.”
Scootaloo pushed the doors to the school open while chatting to her friends, “You know every time we have a special guest come to our school, Diamond Tiara always has to be there first to steal the attention and make the best impress-”
All three fillies’ jaws dropped at the sight of the filly stood before them; Diamond Tiara. Somehow Diamond Tiara had rushed and arrived to the school early to greet and welcome the special guest. She gave them all friendly welcome that frustrated them as they wanted to be the first ones there, but they joined her as she continued to chat with the tall brown stallion, presumably the special guest.
“And my mom even got our own spa room built in our house now! I'm sure my dad would be more than eager to do business with you if you were interested! He's the best at selling things!"
“Is there anything you don't brag about, Diamond Tiara?” Sweetie Belle asked the pink filly, sighing.
Diamond Tiara looked up at the brown stallion who was smiling nervously at her, and she realized how much she had been boasting about, "Oh, haha, it's fine if you're not interested though. I'm sure he'll be fine."
“Ahhh, no need to worry, everyone loves to talk up what they care about. That's why I'm here after all!” the tall brown stallion said, chuckling at the four fillies in front of him. “I see you're all here a bit earlier than the rest of your classmates however. No need to worry, everypony will get a turn!”
“Alright, my little ponies! Time for class!” Cheerilee, the class teacher, announced. All the foals and fillies filed into their seats and quieted down for the teacher. “Today we have a special guest as you can all see! Let’s all be on our best behavior, and welcome Dr. Rejuvenate!”
“Welcome, Dr. Rejuvenate!” the class replied in unison.
The well-mannered stallion smiled and stood forward, holding a pointer stick in his hoof, “Thank you, Ms. Cheerilee, and welcome students! Now, you all might be wondering why I came to your school today. All your questions can and will be answered!”
Dr. Rejuvenate trotted over to the presentation board, pointing the stick under his name written upon it. The cardboard cutouts lay stacked up against the stationary canvas, and near the top left corner of the first board, a logo for a company named “Thoughtless Industries” was stamped in a bold black ink.
“So as your wonderful teacher explained, I am Dr. Rejuvenate from Thoughtless Industries! Have any of you ponies heard of my company before?”
Diamond Tiara’s hoof shot up immediately. “Oh, oh, I know what it is!”
Dr. Rejuvenate set his pointer stick on the canvas’ ledge, and glanced up at the ecstatic pink filly, “Would you mind sharing your idea on what my company does?”
“Well, I don’t know much since it’s newer, but I heard it makes top quality spa and relaxation machinery that is currently the best in Equestria!”
“Right on! I’m surprised you knew that much about my company!”
The satisfied pink filly chuckled while leaning back in her chair, “That’s because my daddy got in contact with you, and we got one of the new Relaxator machines BEFORE it released to the general public!”
The class muttered to one another, amazed that Diamond Tiara's family had received early access to the company's new machine. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and looked at her two friends, then back at the tall stallion, waiting for him to continue.
"It seems you all are excited for the Relaxator! Well lucky for you I brought one with!" Dr. Rejuvenate turned to a large object covered by a black sheet and pulled it off, revealing a monstrous machine made of cold hard steel.
The machine appeared to be a large, rectangular wrought iron box with various buttons, screens, and flashing lights featured prominently on its front side. Out of the top of this box sprouted a long spike with a spinning electrical ring connected to it. An odd looking orb was also built into this spike, with many holes in it that resembled some sort of meteor from outer space. Robotic arms also stretched from both sides of this box, which each had a half sphere-like bowl attached to the ends, almost as if were to simulate a hair dryer bowl used at the standard Ponyville spas. Scootaloo thought that it had some sort of role to play in the Relaxator’s spa process, although its spike and orb made her curious about the mechanics behind the machine.
The whole box itself sat on top of a wide platform, with a set of uneven stairs leading up to its black leather chair, which had been bolted to its base. A rustic lever was also attached to this bulky terrace’s left side, and a mysterious podium that was still covered up was attached to its right side.
“Alright everypony! Let me walk you through each and every aspect of this machine so you all aren’t afraid to come on down and try it out yourself!”
The class sighed, relieving themselves from any fear or worry filled thoughts about this exotic machine displayed in front of them. They regained their attention and looked back up at Dr. Rejuvenate, letting him continue his explanation.
“So here you see the Relaxator, with all its bits and bolts, but it’s really not that all complicated. Well at least to ponies like you,” the doctor chucked as he pulled the lever of the machine.
The Relaxator started to blink to life, its screen powering on, displaying company’s logo and loading bar. A bright exclamation mark also flashed to life, with a percentage monitor below it, currently loaded up as zero percent. Weirdly, the other screen located on the far right side of the box had also been covered up like the mysterious podium, but instead the cover read “Out of Order”. Not that this was a problem to the overall system, but when Scootaloo studied the broken screen more carefully, she could see a faint glow near the edges of the cover.
“You see when I pull this lever, the whole machine starts to boot up. Well, it's actually just preparing itself for the spa process! Once it senses a pony in its seat, the real fun begins! For now I’ll set it to demo, but all my products were built to detect your presence so you don’t have to worry about all the powering up and loading stress!,” Dr. Rejuvenate continued while pressing a few buttons in between the two screens.
The brown stallion jerked back as one of the large robotic arms swung over his head, connecting its half sphere bowl to the other half connected to the opposite arm, forming a perfect bowl over the looming leather chair. After the screen displayed the successful connection process, the huge electrical ring spinning on the spike started to brighten and flicker to life.
“Here it goes everypony! Now that the spa bowl has successfully connected together, you see that this ring starts to power up! This is actually our highly advanced relaxation method which gathers energy up and-”
The holes in the metal orb glowed a bright red color, and all of a sudden enormous bolts of electricity bursted from around the ring, leading up to meteor like sphere, filling its holes with crackling sparks of energy. Extra strands of of bright blue power surged out from the tip of the spike, dying off in the air in the classroom, leaving the other power contained in the flashing orb. Once the extra electricity finished draining into the atmosphere, the machine started to hum and whirr, the noise slowly growing louder and louder.
Dr. Rejuvenate walked closer to the class, raising his voice to speak over the Relaxator’s noises and sounds, “Now that the relaxation orb has been filled, it will convert and send the electricity down as specially engineered vibration waves that soothe your head both mentally and physically! All of our testers and volunteers for this machine so far have told me that I do the best job at relaxing and making them feel the most comfortable they have ever been!”
The class burst into cheers and clapped as the machine finished its demo, and Diamond Tiara was the first brag about her early usage of it. The crusaders glared at her, and she stopped bragging once again, this time a bit embarrassed by doing so. The class eventually quieted down after the commotion, and all looked back to Dr. Rejuvenate so he could continue.
The doctor jumped back up and onto the Relaxator’s platform, kicking off the second to last cardboard cutout, which described the specially engineered vibration waves and their formation, to reveal the final cutout which read “The End” in bold, cursive italic font.
He bowed to the class once again and cleared his throat, “Thank you all for your time and attention for my presentation, but now I think we should all have some fun! So...who wants to be the first volunteer?”