//------------------------------// // Reach Out // Story: Magical Mystery Oops // by BookeCypher //------------------------------// The sun had long since set outside as the purple draconequus set the sheaf of papers down with a sigh. She had thought her original spell had been complex, but this… while it wasn’t operating on nearly the sort of power or slim margins the slap-dash spell they’d slapped together during the festival had, that had at least been straight-forward. What she was looking at now was less one spell and more several nested within and around each other. Well, now she could at least be sure that, if the ritual did blow up in her face it would at least be an explosion powered by equine magic. The spell-conversion matrix was finally done, and with it the last major ritual component. All the remained was integration, cross-checks, and incremental testing. She leaned back in her chair with a sigh, glancing around her workshop. Just getting to this stage had taken over a week of long nights, and she hadn’t even started making anything yet. This sort of ritual worked best with custom components and implements – cold-forged copper rings, specially-brewed alchemic reagents, hoof-crafted spell gems… procurement could take ages. Her original estimate of a few weeks wasn’t wrong, really – but if she wanted to do this right, then she should really take her time. No point in rushing, really. A claw came up to her face with a groan. She could tell when she was trying to rationalize something to herself. She’d worked out what she’d probably need for this days ago – ordering the reagents and gems she couldn’t find in Ponyville and having them delivered would only take a few days. Even with quality control and testing, she’d still be able to match her first estimate. Pony again inside of a month… With another sigh, she collected her notes and set them aside before rising from her desk. She’d promised her friends she’d get some fresh air and relax today. Leaving her office behind, Twilight stepped out into the hall and made her way toward the Map room. She heard her friends before she even reached the door, the distinct sound of Pinkie Pie’s giggling carrying far thanks to the acoustics of the crystal castle, the less distinct sounds of whoever was trying to control her cutting in occasionally. The scene she found when she finally entered the chamber isn’t what she was expecting, but was hardly surprising. The last chocolate rain storm had shown an alarming tendency to target individual ponies, though she had never figured out the exact selection criteria – she had narrowed down to either being based on how good a day a pony was having or how thirsty she was. Actually getting it back to the castle had proven surprisingly easy in the end; she'd simply isolated the string dictating its direction and tied it to the directionality of an object. Thus, the point-and-go cotton candy cloud. Pinkie was now zooming around the Map room on top of it, the wooden staff she'd ended up using to control it clutched in one foreleg. Below her, Applejack and Fluttershy were both trying to convince her to come down – the latter softly, the former less so. Rarity was simply keeping as far away from the sticky cloud as possible, and near her Rainbow Dash was watching the entire spectacle like it was her own private show. “So,” Twilight said as she stopped next to Rarity, “Do I even want to know?” The white unicorn shrugged, a curl of purple mane shifting as she does, “Not much to tell you, dear – one moment we were all waiting, the next Pinkie swoops in through a window on top of that… thing.” she finished with a wave of a hoof toward Pinkie and her new form of transport. Now that she thought about it, Twilight realized that the pink earth pony blended into the pink cloud almost perfectly. Twilight watched the flying pink-on-pink blur zoom around the chamber as she walked forward until Pinkie was doing little loops centered on her. “Having fun, Pinkie?” “Indubitably!” Pinkie replied with a giggle as she did a barrel roll, “This is so cool, Twilight! Can I keep it?” “I still need it for my research,” Twilight replied, “So no.” “awww,” Pinkie said with a frown, “Can I eat it when you’re done?” Twilight considered for a moment the ramifications of letting Pinkie consume a piece of chaos energy the size of her head, “...maybe. I thought I had that down in cold storage downstairs though.” “You did!” Pinkie said, now driving the cloud backwards, “I was down there looking for some ice cream and found this instead. Way better than ice cream.” “You’re surprisingly good at that,” Twilight noted as she watched the earth pony literally fly circles around Rainbow Dash, “How’s the handling? Discord and I had issues with turn responsiveness before and we think I might have been related to the sluggish acceleration, but we-” A cough behind her reminded Twilight that she as getting distracted again. “Right,” Twilight said sheepishly before turning to address Pinkie, “Mind parking the cloud? We need to discuss the plans for today.” “Silly Twilight,” Pinkie said with a giggle, “Plans never survive long!” “Trust me, I know,” Twilight replied as she took a seat in her own chair and gesturing for the others to do so, “But it’s the thought that counts.” “Which is why,” Rarity cut in, giving Twilight a sharp glare before addressing Pinkie, “I have scheduled us all for a trip to the Spa; Aloe and Lotus shall have everything ready by the time we arrive.” “What about long, purple, and crazy here?” Rainbow asked as she finally decided to land, “I mean, it’s not like they have a draconequus bath, right?” Rarity just gave the blue pegasus a relaxed smile. Rainbow’s forehoof met her forehead with a smack, “They do, don’t they?” “Not per se, no,” Rarity admitted, “But the twins have a alicorn-sized accommodations for all of their treatments, and the group bath is of course large enough…” she gave Twilight an aside glance, “...barring any size-shifting shenanigans, of course.” Twilight held her forelimbs up defensively, “Who do I look like, Discord?” “A little bit,” Rainbow replied, waving her hoof vaguely, “If you squint a bit...” Rainbow got another sharp glare from Rarity before the unicorn continued, “Of course Twilight – perish the thought! It’s just, with draconequii and spas…” she fidgeted nervously, “...I had a bad experience.” “Really?” Rainbow asked, as everybody – including Flash, when did he get here? - leaned in, “What happened?” “I said I had a bad experience!” Rarity replied sharply, “And I shall leave it at that!” “...Right,” Twilight said after a moment, “In that case – everybody ready?” “Of course, darling,” “Sure, whatever.” “I’m fine.” “Let’s go-go-go!” “Ready whenever you are, Twi.” “Ready to go, ma’am.” Okay, Twilight thought, thats fi- wait, “Flash?” Twilight spun around to face the stallion in the room, “what are you doing?” The guard blinked owlishly, “Preparing to escort you on your spa day, ma’am,” Twilight ran a claw down her face with a groan, “Flash, I don’t need an escort.” “Be that as it may, ma’am,” Flash replied, “I am your sole guard at the moment. There are protocols to observe.” “Sure you don’t want to just listen in on a bunch of mares bathing?” Rainbow taunted with a wink and a nudge to the other pegasus. Flash just regarded her with a raised eyebrow, “Why would I want to listen to you all bathing?” Rainbow stared at him for a moment before saying, “What are you, stupid?” “Rainbow, stop trying to give him ideas,” Twilight said with a sigh, “Flash, if you’re going to come… fine. Just expect consequences?” Flash blinked owlishly, “Consequences?” A short while later, Rarity was trotting down the road to the spa, a spring in her step as the rest followed close behind, “I do love a nice stroll through town! Especially when it leads to a few pieces of lovely fabric.” Well behind the main group, Flash glanced up at the massive stack of fabric bolts piled on his back, “A few?” “Oh, shush, Mister Sentry,” Rarity admonished him as the spa came into sight, “I carry more than that twice a week.” “Ma’am, you have magic; that hardly seems fair,” Flash groused, but didn’t complain further. As the septet stepped into the spa, Aloe and Lotus were quick to greet them, “Welcome!” the twin earth ponies said in unison before the first continued, “Bringing your work with you now, Miss Rarity?” the pink mare asked. “We understand you like your work, but this...” her blue sister continued with a hint of a smile. “I came across a sale I simply couldn’t pass on, ladies – that’s all,” Rarity replied as she glanced back at Flash, “Really though, I did tell you that you could drop that off at my shop, didn’t I?” “You did ma’am,” Flash replied as he set his burden down in a corner with a sigh, “But really, it’s nothing,” Twilight just barely noticed the way he glanced at her for an instant, “Going to your shop and coming back would be more trouble than it’s worth.” “Should we prepare a room for your stallion, Princess Sparkle?” Lotus asked as she moved to rearrange the stacks of cloth into something neater and more discreet. “Could you please not word it that?” Twilight said with a sigh, “But-” “That won’t be necessary,” Flash cut in, “I’m just here as the Princess’s guard detail.” Aloe and Lotus glanced between Twilight and the guard before settling their gazes back on Flash as Lotus said, “….she requires a guard?” “The same thing, every time!” Flash groused dramatically – perhaps too dramatically, Twilight thought as she noticed Flash's smirk at the twin’s giggling. “I think we can work with that,” Aloe finally said as she managed to compose herself again, waving a hoof, “Please, come with me – we have you in the Rose Bath today.” The six ponies and the draconequus followed the twin down the hall and into quite possibly the last thing Twilight had been expecting. The room was a wide open space, most of the space dominated by the oversized bath that looked more like a pool. Water-slicked rocks ringed the side, steam curling off the water as the soft burbling of miniature waterfalls adding to the ambiance. Twilight leaned back out the door and glanced back and forth down the hall. Some of those doors seemed off. She leaned back in through the door and looked around again. She repeated her observations a few times before saying out loud, “It’s smaller on the outside.” “Ye-” Aloe started before stopping with a frown, “...That is not what most people usually say.” “Most?” Twilight asked as she turned to the earth pony, “How long has this been here?” Aloe shrugged, “A year or so? Discord came with Fluttershy for one of her spa days and decided he wanted to renovate.” Twilight blinked, “And you let him?” “He did not ask,” Aloe replied with a shrug, “And once it was done… well, no point in putting it to waste, right?” “I suppose not,” Twilight replied with a smirk, “You said this was after a visit with Fluttershy? I wonder if he was trying to...” Twilight trailed off for a moment as her face slowly fell. “...Miss Sparkle?” Aloe finally said after a long moment. That seemed to snap the draconequus out of whatever thought she had been lost in, as she gave herself a quick shake before regarding the spa pony with a smile, “Sorry – was reminded of an… experiment. Anyway! I don’t see any soap – did Discord do something to that too?” “Some of it, yes,” Lotus replied with a sigh, “He told us that he’d improved the soap along with making some for himself, but failed to tell us which was which.” “Well, what’s wrong with-” Twilight started before she thought of it, “Poison Joke?” “Indeed,” Lotus said with a nod, “Sadly, he left his ‘personal’ soap mixed amongst the rest.” Twilight rolled her eyes, “Figures – well, I can take a quick look. Lead the way.” “Twilight, I really must protest,” Rarity cut in. Behind her, the other girls were already taking advantage of the oversized bath, “This soap has been fine for months; I’m sure they have other soap.” Lotus nodded, “We do; its part of why we haven’t talked to you sooner.” “What’s the other part?” Twilight asked as she raised an eyebrow. Lotus shuffled her hooves as she laughed nervously, “Well, Princess, its, um...” Her explanation was interrupted by Rainbow Dash suddenly cutting in from the left, “Hey, Lotus! Can I get more of that soap? The last bar turned the mayor’s mane pink for like a week! You can drop it off at my place like usual, okay? Thanks, bye!” Twilight and Lotus watched Rainbow dive back into the water before turning back to each other, Twilight’s flat stare meeting Lotus’s nervous smile and winning, “So,” Twilight said, “I guess this is why you’ve been having those ‘Poison Joke Treatment’ specials, hm?” “P-part of it, Princess,” Lotus replied as she started to lead her down the hall, “Though, um, that sounded more like it might have been one of the improved bars; they really are quite impressive...” “That’s Discord for you,” Twilight said as she followed the mare. Behind her, most of her friends were too engrossed with the bath to notice, “Never does anything by half-measures...” The pair quickly reached a small store room, and inside were stacks and stacks of identical looking bars of blue soap, “So, Princess,” Lotus asked nervously, “How long do you think this would take?” Twilight inhaled deeply before slowly exhaling from her nose, the tell-tale spicy-sweet scent of Poison Joke rolling over her, “Based on the aroma? A bit. This much Poison Joke means I can’t just wave a claw.” Lotus balked, “You mean you will have to examine each bar individually?” “I never said that,” Twilight replied as she sat down next to the nearest pallet of bars and grabbed one, nibbling on it, “It’ll just take a bit to work out an exclusion criteria.” “I...see?” Lotus replied cautiously. Like most of the town, she’d learned to take a conservative approach to things when dealing with a jargon-using Twilight. “Don’t worry,” Twilight waved at her in a vaguely reassuring way as she grabbed a second soap bar, “It’s perfectly safe.” Whatever else Lotus said after that, Twilight didn’t notice as she turned her attention to the bars in front of her. To most, they all looked the same, but for Twilight the different weave of the strings was unmistakable. The bar on her left was centered on a writhing ball of tendrils, snapping out to anything that got to close and working furiously to remove impurities from the base material. The soaps cleaning nature then, amplified by what looked like a coil of Discord’s own intentionality. The other bar, instead of a bundle of strings, was more like a single stiff fiber poised on a coiled spring. At its root was the slowly churning gorgon’s knot that was Posion Joke – a conceptual delivery mechanism, laid out in the weaves of probability and potential. Luckily, the massive difference in structure meant it would be easy to sort out. Twilight quickly began weaving a spell of her own, tendrils of telekinetic force being fed simple instructions – if tendrils, pile left. If stinger, pile right. Once she was certain that her spell wouldn’t try to sort everything at once – and after adding a dampening metric, lest her spell destroy the spa in a burst of over-enthusiastic organization – she set it to work. Immediately, blocks of soap began dancing themselves into the separate piles, spinning slowly in front of her for a moment before moving to their designated piles under Twilight’s careful supervision at a steady pace. A steady, slow pace. Twilight managed to leave well enough alone before she unfolded the spell-form and started tinkering with it. Luckily, the spell could keep functioning while she fine-tuned it. “Let’s see,” she thought out loud, “Obvious place to start is the identification algorithm – if I can just streamline the process...” Strings began to untie and reweave themselves as her claws danced across them. As she did the blocks began to move faster, but soon the spell began to wobble and spark unnervingly, “Oh, darn it – I forgot to take into account auxiliary storage needs. This wouldn’t be a problem if I could shift the computation elsewhen or elsewhere… gah; stupid non-coherent mathematical models. Where’s Discord when you need him? Guess I just have to do it the slow way. Can’t add more memory though. Maybe parallelization? Could also work on the motive function cycle as well...” Slowly, the spell began to stabilize as the sorting slowed done until it was just faster than before while Twilight continued to tinker. Pale blue light tinted the space as Twilight began to hum a meandering bi-tonal tune. Time lost any meaning beyond the methodical and steady improvement of her spell. At least, until somebody else showed up. “Princess Twilight?” Twilight looked up from her work on a more efficient transport cycle to see Flash Sentry standing in the door way with an odd mix of politely professional neutrality and concern written across his face. “Oh, Flash,” she waved vaguely as she turned back to the spell, “I’ll be out shortly. I just need another… five minutes?” “Ma’am,” Sentry replied, “You’ve been in here for over forty minutes.” Twilight blinked owlishly, “...Really?” “Yes ma’am,” Sentry replied with a nod, “The rest of the girls have moved on to the sauna…” He paused, tapping at his chin with one hoof, “Well, most of them – I think Rainbow Dash is trying to find tree twigs. Something about ‘traditional techniques’.” “Yeah,” Twilight drawled as she recalled just what Rainbow was talking about, “I think she just wants an excuse to hit ponies with sticks.” “Probably,” Sentry replied with a shrug, “Wanna come watch?” “I think I should try and stop her, if anything,” Twilight replied as she collapsed the spell back down and leaving it to run before turning to Sentry, “… Forty minutes though? Really?” “Yes ma’am,” Sentry nodded, “You must have been really focused.” “It’s relaxing,” Twilight replied with a shrug as the pair headed down the hall, “or, at least as relaxing as cleaning up Discord’s antics can be.” “You must be getting pretty good at that by now Princess,” Sentry said, “Especially after working with him this long.” “Advantage of working with him though was I could make him help clean up his own messes,” Twilight said as her mind thought back to the town festival and its giant bird – as well as its decorations, “Though, to be fair, he’s been getting better.” “Thanks to your good influence, no doubt,” Sentry gave a small nod before standing to the side and gesturing to a door, “The sauna, Princess.” “Thank you, Sentry,” Twilight replied politely before stepping inside. And promptly being hit in the face with a twig. “That’s a point for me!” Pinkie cheered from somewhere in the foggy depths of the chamber. “Pinkie, we aren’t keeping score,” Rainbow’s voice answered from somewhere Twilight couldn’t – no, wait. She could just make out a bluish patch of steam. “Good for you then!” Pinkie replied with a smirk Twilight could actually hear, “Because I would be winning.” “Sorry about that girls,” Twilight finally said as she removed the twig from her mane, “...Rainbow, this isn’t even the right genus.” “You know you’re the only genius for us, Twilight,” Rainbow replied as she finally emerged from the steam, “Why you’re comparing yourself to a twig...” “This is from the wrong tree,” Twilight said, cutting her off. “Oh,” Rainbow replied before shrugging, “All I could find. You had me worried for a moment there – thought all that Discord Time might have finally caught up with you.” “Speaking of Discord,” Rarity chimmed in from a bench near a wall, “What did he do this time?” “Nothing much,” Twilight replied, taking one of the bars of soap and tweaking it slightly before tossing it toward the unicorn, “Take a look at this.” Rarity caught the soap on reflex, looking over it for a moment before giving it a dainty sniff, “Oh my – this smells lovely! What is it?” Twilight let out a content sigh as she collapsed bonelessly onto the bench opposite, draping a warm towel over her face, “Poison Joke Soap.” Twilight couldn’t help but smirk at the sudden ‘eek’ closely followed by a soft thud across from her, “Don’t worry – I neutralized the Poison Joke along with adjusting the smell.” Twilight took a chance and glanced over, watching Rarity carefully pick up the soap like it was going to bite her, “adjusted how?” she asked. “Ponies can’t usually smell Poison Joke properly,” Twilight explained, “It’s a draconequus thing. I just made it so it wasn’t.” “So this is what the flowers smell like to you all the time?” Rarity asked before giving the bar another sniff, “I can see why you didn’t mind Discord showering you with them.” “It is nicer than suddenly finding the library’s poetry section attempting to eviscerate my literary criticism texts,” Twilight replied, “Discord can be surprisingly nice once you get past the whole lack of impulse control.” “Could,” Rainbow suddenly spoke up, drawing look and a quirked eyebrow from Twilight, to which Rainbow Dash replied with a shrug, “What? He’s in Canterlot now working with Princess Celestia – that means it should be ‘could be’ instead of ‘can be’, right?” The sauna was silent for a long moment, save Pinkie’s energetic bouncing, until Rarity finally managed to speak, “Did Rainbow just correct Twilight on grammar?” “I think she did,” Applejack replied incredulously, “I’m as shocked as you are.” “Oh, screw you guys,” Rainbow replied as she dropped onto the bench next to Twilight with a huff. “Be nice, everypony,” Twilight said, admonishing them as she rolled over, “Besides, Rainbow probably reads more then Rarity these days. Ponies can change.” “Case in point,” Rainbow said, giving the purple draconequus a poke with a wing, “Though that’s starting to finally sound temporary. You’ll finally be able to go back to being an alicorn!” “Go back,” Twilight said as she layed back on the bench, eyes gazing up at the wood panels of the ceiling, “Right...” “I figured you’d be more excited, dear,” Rarity commented as she spooned water onto a pile of heated stones near the center of the room, sending a plume of steam curling toward the ceiling, “This is what you’ve been working towards for weeks, is it not?” “Yeah,” Twilight said absently before realizing she was actually in a conversation, “I mean – yeah, it’s just… after everything, I’m just…” she trailed off with a sigh as she rolled over, staring toward the rocks, “I guess part of me didn’t think I’d ever work it out...” “You?” Rainbow said, raising an eyebrow, “not figuring out a problem? As if. Still, I know the feeling,” Rainbow stretched out with a sigh, “Sometimes I amaze even myself with how awesome I am.” That earned Rainbow a chorus of groans from the others as Twilight sat back and simply tried to enjoy the sauna. She had to admit, that after the weeks of insanity and the occasional near-death encounter, A chance to unwind and not have to worry about anything immediate was… nice. Even if a small part of her was complaining about wasted time that could be used to solve things. She had to remind that part that spending time with her friends was not a waste in time and was, in fact, important to maintaining proper mental health. A third part of her pointed out that she was a few extra pronouns away from talking to herself and she should probably stop. “Alright,” Twilight said after a long while, popping her back as she bent nearly in half, “I’ll be right back girls – I need some air, and I think this humidity is doing something strange to my coat.” “Darlin’,” Applejack cut in, “Last time you said that you missed the entire bath.” “Five minutes, I promise.” Twilight assured her, but all she got in reply was an arched eyebrow. “Fine,” Twilight said with a huff before pulling the door open, sticking her head out and looking at Flash. The guard was apparently half-way through a hand of solitare, “Flash Sentry – I’m getting some air; make sure I’m back in five minutes and don’t get sucked into some sort of ‘mad-scientist fugue state’ and make sure I get back to-” she paused and turned to Rarity, “Where are we going next?” “Deep tissue massages, darling,” Rarity replied. “Make sure I get back to the massages on time.” Twilight finished saying to Sentry before turning to Applejack, “There, satisfied?” Applejack shrugged, “Works for me.” Friends properly reassured, Twilight stepped out of the sauna and into the cool air of the spa. Almost instantly, her entire coat fluffed out, turning her into what looked like a large, fuzzy sausage, “Ugh – I look like my Cutie Pox virus plushie,” Twilight complained as she groped around the room for a Princess-sized towel, “Discord never had this much trouble.” “Ma’am,” Sentry replied as she handed her a towel, “I don’t think Discord ever spent time in a sauna.” “Point,” Twilight replied as she began the arduous process of dewatering her coat, “Gah – how does he do this? This is going to take ages.” “Can’t you just make all the water, you know...” Sentry asked, waving his hoof vaguely, “...not be in your coat?” Twilight paused mid-wipe, “...Huh. You’d think I’d remember this sort of thing,” she tossed the towel aside before she turned her attention inward, “Okay, just gimme a-” an instant later, the entire room outside the sauna resembled inside the sauna, “...and that’s why I don’t try this sort of thing usually.” she finished with a sigh as water began to condense on everything. “...I’ll get some towels,” Sentry said before he started out of the room. “Let me help!” when Sentry looked back at her, she quickly added, “non-magically! Unlike Discord, I learn.” “I thought you said he had been a good partner?” the orange pegasus asked as the pair found a linen closet and proceeded to empty it. “Yeah,” Twilight said with a nod, adjusting the piles of towels stacked across her back, “I mean, for a lord of chaos he had a good grasp of scientific methodology, a willingness to test any hypothesis and an excellent grasp of subject material, as you’d expect,” she sighed, “And he seemed to enjoy the work. Or at least I thought he did...” “What can you do?” Sentry shrugged, “Sometimes people are ready to move on before we are.” Twilight arched an eyebrow, “Speaking from experience?” “Last girlfriend,” Sentry replied, “We dated for ten months, and then she dropped the ‘we should see other people’ thing,” he sighed, “Thing is, I didn’t want to – but I couldn’t make her stay, now could I? So I let her go.” Twilight blinked, “And then you moved on?” Sentry gave a small ‘hah’, “Oh, hay no! I kept pining for her for months.” Twilight blinked owlishly, “...oh.” “But I moved on, eventually,” Sentry continued, “because I had to. You can’t just wait around and hope things go back to how they were until you’re ready.” “All the best plans, huh?” Twilight replied before sighing, “You’re probably right but it still feels… wrong, doing all of this without him. It was his work too after all.” Sentry considered her for a moment before he said, “Huh – you were closer to him then I thought.” “It’s not like that!” Twilight quickly shot back, “It’s just – it feels like I’m taking credit for something he did, even if he’s the one who left.” “I guess his priorities must have changed,” Sentry replied as he glanced at a clock, “Apologies ma’am, but we need to head back if we wanna be on time.” The pair found the others already out of the sauna and reacting to the lightly water-logged room with varying degrees of amusement, “Ah, Twilight,” Rarity greeted them before gesturing at the room around them, “I take it this is your doing?” “Not entirely intentional, I swear,” Twilight replied as she sent the towels to cleaning up the excess water. Applejack raised an eyebrow as she watched a pair of towels begin wiping down a display cabinet, “You have some sort of accident?” Behind her, Rainbow snerked. “Was just trying to de-water my coat,” Twilight replied, pointedly ignoring the blue pegasus, “Draconequus coats and excess moisture are not a pleasant combination. I have no idea how Discord deals with it.” “He never complained about anything before,” Fluttershy commented before a towel started to try nudging her out of the way, “Oh, sorry!” she quickly side-stepped, letting the towel dart under the cabinet that had been behind her before she continued, “Bath time was one of the few things he enjoyed, or at least I thought so...” Fluttershy’s gaze shifted toward the ceiling as one wing came around and began lightly tapping on her chin. “...You look like you want to add something to that, partner?” Applejack finally said after a long moment. “Oh, sorry!” Fluttershy quickly replied, “It’s just, I thought that might explain the time I caught him rubbing himself down with the Mallard family.” “The Mallard family are… ducks, yes?” Rarity asked, cautiously. “Oh, yes! Which remind me,” Fluttershy turned to Pinkie, “Thank you for the stale pastries – everyone loved them. Harry loved the bear claws.” “Of course he did, silly!” Pinkie replied, not looking away from her game of keep-away with a towel as she taunted it about with a long-handled brush like it was a carrot. “Pinkie, let the towels work,” Rarity admonished the pink mare as she yanked away the brush away with a burst of telekinesis, “We do need to be heading over to the massage.” “Don’t they usually come get you for that?” Rainbow asked as she watched a pair of towels tussle over the chance to clean a chair. “Indeed, Miss Dash.” “Gah!” Rainbow jumped a good meter and a half into the air as Aloe spoke up from behind her. The blue pegasus spun around and glared at her, “Where the hay did you come from?” “If you would follow me,” Aloe continued, her only reaction to Rainbow being the slightest of smirks, “the massage room is ready for all of you.” Aloe continued to ignore Rainbow Dash as she turned and gestured for everyone to follow her. With a grumble, Rainbow followed her, Pinkie pronking along shortly after her. Fluttershy and Rarity were close behind, but Applejack paused after few steps before turning to Twilight, “You okay, Twi?” Twilight hadn’t moved since Aloe had shown up, instead watching the towels go about their work, “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said as she finally started to move, “Just wanted to make sure they weren’t going to… start a war against the shampoo containers or something.” They caught up to the rest in the next room, Aloe and Lotus standing in front of a small circle of those strange table-gurney things with the holes to lay face down in arrayed behind them, “Please choose whichever table you’d like, ladies,” Aloe said, “Once you are all situated, our masseuses can begin.” “Um, slight problem,” Twilight said as she looked over the tables, “None of these are designed for a four meter long Draconequus.” She was also fairly certain that even a Princess-sized one would leave one end of her sitting on the floor. Aloe and Lotus blinked owlishly before glancing behind them and taking a quick inventory. Aloe actually bit off a quiet curse under her breath before heading toward a side door with a small ‘excuse me’. She gave the door a quick series of knocks, and it promptly slid open to reveal a truly massive white pegasus stallion, “Mister Snowflake,” Aloe said, “Where is the bed for Princess Twilight?” “Sorry ma’am,” the stallion replied sheepishly, his spa uniform straining over his muscles as he nervously scratched at his neck, “But I just can’t get it to hold together.” “I see...” Aloe said as she gave Twilight an aside glance. “You want me to take a look?” Twilight asked with a sigh. “If you would be so kind,” Aloe replied with a nod. The rest of the afternoon continued smoothly after that, though even with the stretched bed in place the only masseuse that had any luck with Twilight was Snowflake; the others who tried used phrases such as ‘like trying to massage stone’, ‘what even are these muscles?’ and ‘oh sweet Celestia my hoof’. Once things got going however, Twilight was more than willing to admit that this had been a great idea on Rarity’s part. Days of working hunched over a table had left her with knots in muscles she didn’t even know she had – literally, since she and Discord had never gotten around to documenting Draconquui anatomy. She had to suppress an un-princess like moan of comfort as Snowflake worked his way down her spine. Agile as Discord’s claws might be, he never put enough force behind it to get deep into the muscles. He also had a tendency to start re-coloring her coat part way though. When the group of seven finally stepped out of the spa and into the afternoon sun, Twilight couldn’t help but grin. She was properly relaxed for the first time in days, that annoying kink in between her shoulder was gone, and she felt like she could do anything. Conquering chaos magic, re-stabilize the Griffinstone economy, conquer a couple of alternate timelines – the sky was the limit. Or maybe more of a lower bound. Reversing her own transformation should be trivial! Discord would… ...her thoughts petered out as she remembered that Discord wasn’t interested in talking to her at the moment. And she’d been having such a good time too. She gave herself a quick shake before turning to her friends with a smile, “This was a great idea Rarity; I really needed to relax more then I thought.” “Of course it was!” Rarity replied with a toss of her mane, “Never doubt me on matters of relaxation.” To her left, Rainbow Dash leaned toward Applejack and stage-whispered, “Says the mare that once had a panic attack over her mane.” “I heard that!” Rarity yelled as Applejack tried to suppress a snicker. Twilight allowed herself an eye-roll before she continued, “It was nice, not having to worry about anything for a day – no papers, no rips in reality, no Discord in my bed in the morning...” “Yeah, he did that, what? Two, three times?” Rainbow asked, hopping over a still annoyed Rarity to hover along next to Twilight, “What was with that, anyhow?” “Just trying to get a rise from me, probably,” Twilight groused, “At least at first – later on, I have no idea; the old goat was annoyingly clingy in bed sometimes and he kept trying even after I just accepted it,” she groaned, “And now the jerk has run off the Canterlot; I’ll never get an answer from him.” “Hate to break it to you, partner, but you probably weren’t ever gettin’ an answer anyway,” Applejack quipped with a chuckle. “Yeah,” Rainbow agreed before adding with a grin, “Look on the upside – he’s probably messing with Princess Celestia right now!” “He’s there to get a favor out of her,” Twilight replied, “Why would he prank her?” Rainbow arched any eyebrow, “Because he’s Discord?” Twilight considered that for a moment, “Fair enough.” The conversation trailed off after that, devolving into the usual banter one hears among friends. But as the five ponies and one draconequus parted ways for the evening, Twilight found her thoughts drifting back to Discord. “Flash,” Twilight finally asked as her castle’s door swung shut behind her, the pegasus guard ahead of her pausing to turn back to look at her as she spoke, “Your last girlfriend… how did you manage to move on, eventually?” “I wrote her a letter,” Flash replied simply as he started unbuckling his armor, “Just laid out everything. Even sent it to her, eventually...” he paused as he pulled his helmet off, “...She never did write back though. But that wasn’t the point, really.” Twilight blinked owlishly, “What was the point?” “To get it all out,” Flash replied, “And, I guess, maybe, to give her a chance,” he gave her a polite bow as he tucked the helmet under one wing, “Goodnight, Princess.” Twilight watched the guardspony head up the stairs in near silence, the only sound being his hoof falls on the crystalline steps. Soon, Twilight was alone in her entryway with her own thoughts. She was still lost in her own thoughts a few minutes later as she mad her way upstairs, “A letter, huh…?”