As she was walking through the woods on her own, Spiral Swirl was debating with herself on the issue of the two children she had under her control.
'I don’t know what to do. I like spending time with Maddie and Joey and having fun with them, but I enjoy having them under my spell. They said they would never forgive me if they found out they were my hypnotized slaves, but that only gives me a better reason to keep them as such.’
She could feel he heart racing with every thought that processed in her head. It was indeed hard for the hypnotic doctor to make a decision on the matter, but kept on talking to herself about what the best way to handle everything would be.
Finally, after a good amount of thinking, Spiral decided to let Maddie and Joey have some freedom from her hypnosis. She went back to the two children (who were still sleeping) and said, “Maddie. Joey. I’m going to bring the two of you out of your trance. When I do, you won’t remember anything that happened while hypnotized. Only the feelings of bliss and relaxation will be the only things you recall from the session. Understand?”
“Yes…mistress…” Joey said in between breaths as he slept. Due to how deeply asleep Maddie was, she was only able to whisper a, “……Yes……”, but heard the command loud and clear.
“Then on the count of three, you will both wake up from your trances. 1…2…3...Awaken!”
Just like always, the spirals dissipated from the children’s eyes as they woke up. Joey rubbed his eyes as Maddie stretched and yawned. After they both recovered, Spiral with her seemingly warm smile asked the two, “So how did you enjoy your session?”
“It was nice and relaxing like last time.” Joey answered in a contented tone of voice.
“It was wonderful!” Maddie replied, smiling with satisfaction.
“That’s good.” Spiral said. “I always do my best to make sure subjects enjoy hypnotic sessions to the fullest.
“Speaking of which, I know you said that we can’t remember from the session because of post-hypnotic amnesia, but what did you make us do under hypnosis?” Joey asked with curious eyes.
Spiral thought for a moment about how to answer his question, until she decided to be honest and see his and Maddie’s reaction. If things turned sour, she could always use the trigger to make them forget.
“Well…what would you say if I said I made the two of you act like random animals?” She asked with a sheepish smile.
“What kind of animals?” Joey asked curiously.
“Oh…just basic kinds like cows, snakes…monkeys.” Spiral answered in a slightly worried tone.
The older brother processed what the pony told him about the animals he acted out under hypnosis and with a sly smile asked, “Were we a wild bunch?” The three then broke down into a fit of laughter from the crass joke.
After recovering from his laugh attack, Joey asked Spiral, “So was there anything else you had us do in a trance or did you just make us act out different animals?”
“Oh no, there was another activity we did while both of you were still under. But, would you be angry if I said I played around with you and your sister’s feet?” She asked while also deciding not to bring up the fact that she questioned the two later in the session.
“You played around…with our feet?” Joey asked in a confused tone with an eye brow raised.
“You mean, like tickling us?” The little sister questioned back.
“You could say that.” The pony replied as she waited to hear another response from them. When none came, she asked, “I take it by the silence that you two didn’t enjoy what I did?”
“Oh no.” The brother retorted before tackling the unicorn down playfully and saying, “But I know that I’ll enjoy THIS!” The boy then began to assault the unicorn’s belly with merciless tickling.
“NO! HAHAHAHAHA! PLEASE NOTHAHAHAHAHA, NOT THE STOMACH!” Spiral laughed out of control while the boy had his way with her.
“Why not?” Joey asked with an amused grin. “It only makes sense that I get my share of tickling you.”
“YOUHAHAHAHA! BAD BOHOHOHOHOHOYYY!” Spiral as she was trying to wrestle her way out of Joey’s grip, but the oldest sibling had a good grip on her and continued his onslaught.
Maddie, simply watching what her brother was doing to the hypnotic doctor, couldn’t resist joining in the fun. She helped hold down some of Spiral’s limbs and added her own set of tickles to the poor pony’s tummy.
All Spiral could do at this point was just laugh uncontrollably as the two siblings had a ballgame with tickling their quadruped friend. Soon after, the siblings settled down and ceased their game of tickling the unicorn. The mare was regaining her breath from the excitement she had just endured as she looked over at the two children and gave an approving smile at them. She could’ve used the trigger at any time, but decided to let the children have their fun and in the process, actually had a fun time as well.
After calming her heartrate down, Spiral asked Maddie and Joey, “So what do you two want to do now?”
“Well it’s only mid-afternoon, so how about a stroll through the woods before we head home?” Suggested the brother.
“Love to.” The teal unicorn responded. “I’ve never actually seen much of these woods since my arrival so, maybe you could guide me around to other landmarks that might be worth visiting?
“Of course! The pond isn’t the only place me and Maddie love to play at.” The boy said. “Come on. Let’s get everything picked up and then we can be on our way.”
“Alrighty!” The younger child said happily as the two of them put their shoes back on and neatly folded their towels (with Spiral helping Maddie out again).
Picking up the basket, Joey looked at his sister and their pony companion and said, “Well, let’s head off!” The three then started to head into a deeper part of the woods.
As they were walking, Spiral took notice of the different types of birds that had nests on the branches and the flowers that grew in certain areas of the grass.
‘These woods certainly are the perfect place for birds to gather. Maybe one day, if I come here alone, I’ll spend a good couple of hours bird gazing.’
After a few minutes, the trio arrived at a massive tree that was hollow at the bottom.
“This is our favorite tree to play at.” Joey told the doctor as he then went inside and ushered the two females to join him. Maddie of course giggled with glee as she sat down next to her brother with Spiral following suit. “When we play hide and seek, we always argue about hiding in the tree’s empty space. But we sometimes also tell stories here when we’re tired of playing.”
While she was taking in the surroundings, Spiral couldn’t help but ask, “I’m sorry if this sounds rude, but how come your parents let you two come to these woods all by yourselves? Aren’t there any possible dangers to being out here, like ferocious creatures?”
Joey was the one to answer her question.
“When we first moved here a year ago, Maddie and I didn’t have any friends to play with and we both loved the outdoors. We didn’t think anything of the woods during our first few days in the new house and stuck to playing in the backyard. About a week later, while our parents were rearranging furniture, we decided to go outside and run around in the backyard. While we were doing that, something about the woods caught our attention and against better judgement, we decided to walk through and see what there was. While exploring, we didn’t find a single animal in sight expect for the occasional bird that flew over us. The first place we discovered was the pond which later on became our favorite place to swim at. It was there and then we realized our parents would be worried sick if we weren’t in the backyard so Maddie and I hurried back to the house and luckily our parents had just finished moving furniture around. The next free day we had, the two of us were able to convince our parents to come with us for a walk in the forest. We showed them around and afterwards asked if it was alright if Maddie and I could come here by ourselves. Mom and Dad were initially very skeptical about us traveling alone in the woods, but after bringing up the fact that we hadn’t come across anything dangerous and my sister pleading, they gave us their consent, as long as we always returned home on time and I always kept a close eye on Maddie. So you could say that these woods are like our playground.”
“I see.” Spiral said.
The boy soon stood back up and asked, “Onto the next location?”
Spiral stood up with a genuine smile on her face and said, “Lead on!”
About six minutes later, the children and pony came to an open grove where the sun shone down on a field of grass. Maddie and Joey both looked at each other for a moment before nodding their heads, putting down the towels and basket, taking off their footwear, putting them next to the towels and ran through the grass in their bare feet. A minute later the two siblings laid down with their backs touching the grass as both let out a content sigh. Spiral only looked on in confusion as to what just happened.
“So what’s special about this site?”
“This…” The brother began as he closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head. “This is our favorite place to relax. The grass here has a soft, soothing touch to our skin. Somedays, we come here to have a nice afternoon nap when we’re bored with nothing else to do.” He then pat a patch of the grass next to him and said, “Feel for yourself Spiral.”
The unicorn shrugged at the human boy’s request, but decided to join the children and to her surprise, the grass was indeed some of the softest she had ever felt. As she sat next to Joey, another question popped into Spiral’s head.
“I know the two of you love coming here by yourselves, but don’t you two have any friends to share this with?”
Joey looked at Spiral and said, “Well we have you to share this with don’t we?” before breaking out into a laugh for a few moments. His laughter soon died down as he looked back in the sky and answered with, “But in all seriousness, Maddie and I don’t have that many friends we hang out with. Those ones we do have are either too busy to spend time with us, don’t share our same level of enjoyment for the outdoors, or go on vacation with their families. I mean don’t get me wrong, we still talk and socialize with them when we’re at school, but we’ve never been able to convince them to walk with us through the woods.”
Spiral felt sorry for the brother and sister, but then, an idea crossed her mind as she asked the two, “Well what if you brought your friends over now that I’m here? You could introduce me to them.”
Maddie stood up and exclaimed, “I have a friend I can bring over! Stacy loves ponies and I think the two of you would get along great! Maybe even hypnotize her for fun!”
Spiral chuckles at Maddie and says, “Well perhaps I could meet her tomorrow and get to know her.”
“I’ll ask Mom when I get home!” The little girl stated happily.
Spiral then turned her head to the other child and asked, “What about you Joey? Have any friends you might want to invite over and introduce me to?”
The boy simply let out a sigh and said, “All my friends are away this year for the summer. Maddie’s the only one I spend time with.”
The unicorn felt even sorrier for the boy and said, “I’m sorry for asking. I just wanted to-”
“You don’t need to apologize.” Joey interrupted the pony. “It’s something neither you nor I could change. Plus, it gives me more time to look after my sister.”
Before she could keep pressing the subject, the oldest sibling got up and said, “Well we’d better move on.” The unicorn stretched herself with some of her limbs popping back into place.
Maddie and Joey quickly put their shoes back on, carried their supplies and continued on their way with Spiral following right beside them.
“How many more stops are there?” The pony asked not out of disrespect but out of curiosity.
“We have just one more.” Replied the brother sibling. “And it’s our favorite of all.”
“Can’t wait to see it!”
A short while later, the three arrived at the entrance to a small cavern that was only about seven feet high. Making their way inside, the unicorn looked around and saw different pictures carved against the wall. The trio of travelers soon reached the end of the cavern where the two kids sat in front of an engraved drawing depicting two children embracing each other. Joining the children in sitting down, Spiral stared at the picture before her and asked, “That’s you two isn’t it?”
“It is.” Joey responded. “This picture holds a special place for Maddie and me. It was a couple months ago when we first came across this cavern during a massive rainstorm. We didn’t have any rain jackets or umbrellas on hand so we took shelter here and waited for the storm to blow over. It continued on for a good couple of hours with the rain hitting down hard, lightning flashing everywhere and the thunder booming loudly. To make matters worse, it had started to get chilly inside. Maddie had been frozen from both the cold and fear of the storm. So I did the only thing I could do. Comfort her and keep her close for warmth. I can’t remember how long we hugged each other for but a little while later, the storm had moved on. We returned home as quickly as we could, only to receive a scolding from our parents about how careless we were and earned a punishment of being unable to go back to the woods for a couple weeks. The two of us were upset at being forbidden to stroll through the forest for the next few weeks, but deep down I was happy that my little sister was okay and receiving any set discipline from our parents couldn’t take that away from me. The weeks following the storm had been long, grueling, and boring but they eventually passed by and soon we were allowed to walk through the woods again. The first thing Maddie and I did, was travel back to this cave and carve up this image as a reminder that even when things seem to be dark and bleak, our love as a brother and sister can never be broken.”
The boy then turned his head to the teal pony and said, “That’s why this is our favorite place in the forest. We also carve up other pictures along the wall for fun, but this first one will always have a special place for us.”
Listening to Joey’s story made Spiral Swirl’s heart soften up even more and made her ultimately question whether she should continue to enslave the children for her own personal benefit or tell the children the whole truth about what her intentions were when she first met them. She studied the picture for a few more seconds until she looked at the two children and said to them, “Thank you for sharing your story Joey. I can certainly understand why this place means so much to the two of you.”
Joey then got up and said, “Well we should start heading back. It’s going to be sundown soon and we don’t want Mom and Dad to throw a fit about us returning late.”
The unicorn lightly chuckled at the oldest child’s statement and said, “I certainly can’t argue with that.” Maddie then stood up and joined her brother’s side with Spiral getting up on her four hooves and saying, “Lead on!”
The brother and sister began walking to the cavern’s entrance while Spiral stayed behind for a minute and stared at the picture a while longer.
“SPIRAL! YOU COMING?!?” Maddie’s voice rang through the walls, breaking the pony’s concentration as she hurried to join the two kids waiting for her at the cavern’s exit while a lone thought went through the doctor’s head.
‘Maybe someday…’