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// Magic of the Mind - Chapter 5 
// Story: Black and Blue 
// by autobot 
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	Soul was dreaming of Rainbow Dash as she always did, happy in her new bedroom covered in the posters and memorabilia of the one pony she obsessed over, murmuring various parts of her fantasies as she slept through the morning sun. Unfortunately this didn’t last long as she was soon knocked out the depths of her minds by a loud ‘Thud’, quickly followed by a, “BUCKING HELL THAT HURTS!” coming from the other bedroom. Soul merely rolled over in her bed and once again pursued her Rainbow coloured thoughts.

“Next time, don’t try to murder a Princess… moron,” she mumbled to herself, slipping back to sleep. Soul had gathered what Red had done the night before by the amount of shouting the Princess of the night had done over the town. As Soul slept on, Red was dragging himself off the floor, pushing himself back onto his hooves, his back and wings aching horribly from the night before. The G-force that he had brought upon himself running from Princess Luna had been higher then he had expected, most probably doing some damage to his back and wing muscles. Finally back on his hooves, Red gingerly tried to move his wings into various positions, each one bringing a new degree of pain to him. He grunted and growled as he brought his wings back into a comfortable folded position. He cursed himself and the Princess of the night under his breath as he walked out of his bedroom and into the bathroom, spending a good fifteen minutes showering and generally getting himself clean and refreshed. After coming out the bathroom looking and feeling squeaky clean, Red put on his jacket and proceeded to poke his head round Souls door, checking if she was sound asleep. Red considered waking her there and then, but then thought better of it. He gently closed the door to Soul’s bedroom and looked at his watch, it was getting onto eleven o’clock. Soul’s body clock would kick her out of bed around midday if she didn’t wake before hand, so Red had an hour to himself.

His next thought was breakfast, but that thought quickly dissolved as he realised there was no food in the apartment. Red at least now had something to do; he grabbed the bag of bit from the table and the keys to the apartment, slipping both into his jacket pockets. He quietly left the apartment and headed down the stairs into the small hall, as he past the door to Lyra and Bon bon’s door he thought he could hear… strange noises coming from inside, his curiosity very quickly got the better of him as he pressed one of his ears against the door. His eyes widened as he realised what he was listening to, without a moment’s hesitation he sprung back from the door and quickly made his way outside, an image now plastered on his mind. He shook his head as he wandered towards the town square, hoping he’d find the right shops or stalls, also hoping he wouldn’t run into anypony. 

It had been a good two hours since Red has left the apartment and he was now carrying a good few bags on his back, all being held into position by his wings, which were still in a bad condition. He had been wandering around now that the shopping was done, simply learning where shops were in the town for future reference. His mind happily wandered as he did so, his attention was elsewhere as he wandered further still through Ponyville, still attracting the stares he did when he and Soul has first arrived. His mental wandering came to an abrupt end when a familiar groggy voice grumbled into his mind
‘You could have at least left me a note or something,’ said a very morning-sounding Soul. 

‘Well good morning to you too,’ Red replied sarcastically, trying to keep his chuckles within his mind. One of the major perks of Souls black magic was Telepathy, a very handy tool for social situations. Due to the two being siblings, the distance of which the magical mental communication could travel was unlimited, thanks to that special bond all brothers and sisters have with each other. Soul’s Telepathy was strong as it is, but even more so when she concentrated, with enough focus the pair were sure she could contact Celestia herself. This focus however was not needed when talking to her little brother, Telepathy to the two was second nature and required little to no effort to do so. Red was also the only pony Soul knew that could block out her out of their mind, she never properly knew why, but she was pretty sure it had something to do with the sibling connection and what was contained in his red eye. ‘I’ve got breakfast and a good amount food to keep us going,’ Red said trying to sound cheerful, Soul never was a morning pony… even if it was half way into the afternoon. 

‘Good’ she replied, sounding happier at the concept of food

‘Would you mind teleporting this lot back to you? I need to do something about these wings…’

Soul simply flashed him an image of her nodding, then Red felt the weight of the bags on his back lessen, as a black aura surrounded them, then they disappeared in a flash of white.
‘Cheers sis, I’ll be back home soon, have something ready by the time I do plleeaassee?’ He didn’t get a proper reply from her, merely a grunt. ‘Home’ Red thought to himself, ‘feels weird calling this place home… yet strangely comforting.’ The thought floated around Reds head as he wandered on. He didn’t get too far however before an image of a freshly made apple pie was plastered forcefully into his mind, Soul standing proudly next to it. Red could see this was a clear attempt to make him jealous, so he merely replied, ‘Bitch, if that ain’t for me, you can kiss goodbye to your Dash plushie collection.’ Before Soul could mentally rip him to shreds, he booted her with all his might out of his head.

He soon came to a posh looking building near the edge of the town square, the front was very clean and well kept, the sign out side simply read ‘Ponyville Spa’. Red looked at the building with curiosity, thinking that maybe, just maybe there was somepony in there that could do something about his wing muscles. As much as he hated social places like these, anything was worth a try to be flying again. He bravely wandered inside; as he walked through the glass door his senses were assaulted by the various aromas of flowers and smelly stuff. Red snorted as he walked up to the counter where a sky blue pony was busy working, he approached quietly and waited patiently for the spa pony to notice him. Moments later the pony looked up casually to check for customers, what she wasn’t expecting was a tall black Pegasus staring down at her with multi-coloured eyes. The spa pony yelped and fell off her chair in surprise, Red merely rolled his eyes and waited for her to get a grip of herself; he really did hate his look from time to time. Finally the spa pony, who Red later found out was named Lotus, had composed herself, Red asked about his pulled muscles. Lotus had told him that her partner Aloe could give him a back massage that would sort of his wings in no time. Reluctantly Red had accepted to have said massage and was taken to a room with a weird bed and lot of candles, Aloe had entered and got him somewhat comfortable on the strange bed and soon began massaging the areas Red had specified. All was going well until, due to Reds relaxing experience, Soul had broke through his mental barrier, most probably to get some revenge. Red however was not having any of it, and with a loud mental ‘BUCK OFF YA BASTARD’, he launched her out of his mind once again. It’s fair to say, he enjoyed the rest of his massage.