//------------------------------// // 71 A Dab of Ink, Part Two // Story: Continuity Disrupted // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// A minute later and Twilight Sparkle lies, enveloped in the arms of her stallion, still softly crying tears of joy from Princess Celestia's letter, now resting in Doug’s hand. Sweetie Belle and Spike, though, are starting to get a little antsy at their proximity, especially with Rarity keeping a watchful eye on the two. That, and Twilight’s constant babbling is starting to get to them. “This is so exciting!” Twilight repeats for about the fifth time, smearing another line of liquid across Doug’s chest. “Can you believe it?” “Yes!” Doug replies happily, though his enthusiasm is starting to wane. Rapidly. “Very exciting! Can we please move?” “Nope!” Twilight jauntily replies for the second time, again snuggling, this time wiping a bit of the drool from her mouth off on his chest. “Ugh,” Spike groans, extricating himself from the pony pile, holding his stomach. “I don’t-” Spike belches, releasing a puff of green flame that quickly settles into a tightly bound scroll. The rest of the ponies watch expectantly as Twilight’s horn lights, a slight frown as she unravels the binding. “Lighter than I thought,” she remarks, tracing a hoof over the ornate seal. Twilight holds the letter up, reading aloud with a mix of excitement and trepidation, “Dear Twilight Sparkle, thank you for your most recent letter, though perhaps a few of the topics contained within are better suited for a face to face discussion over ice cream cake. As it so happens, the other intended recipients of your letter were already at the castle for an early breakfast, so it was no trouble at all to read your letter with them! Looking forward to further entries, Princess Celestia. P. S. Twily, this is your BBBFF. What?!” Twilight rolls the letter back up, a throaty, “Hmm,” all that escapes. “Well, you heard the Princess,” Doug says, pushing and prodding the lost in thought unicorn on top of him, stopping short of straight up lifting her into position. He glances over at Rarity’s roll of the eye, “What? Celestia said she wanted more entries.” “Doug, you are incorrigible,” Rarity groans, her horn lighting and light blue aura encasing Doug’s hand. She lightly pulls the weakly protesting human away to the kitchen, “Besides, Spike made something special for you, and I would hate for it to go to waste, or get cold.” Doug sniffs at the heavy amount of air freshener and cleansing charms around the kitchen table, atop which sits two plates. One, probably for Twilight, has still steaming stir fried vegetables and flowers atop a bed of rice and a cup of black coffee. The second plate is very similar, minus the flowers and coffee, with a glass of pear juice and a small log of sinewy material. Doug picks up the stick of charred fatty sausage, salivating as he takes one savory bite. Rarity grins that her stallion is enjoying the meal, even if she isn’t thrilled at having the lingering stench in her kitchen. Sweetie Belle seems to have the same reaction she does, not yet reentering the kitchen and instead still sitting out in the store. Rarity’s horn lights as Doug finishes off the meat and sits at the table, a quick blast of Deception to clear the air of any unpleasant remnants. Twilight and Spike enter the kitchen, Spike smiling at Doug’s reaction. “So, what’s it like? We special ordered it from Gerald, one of the griffon chefs at Canterlot Castle!” He leans in close, whispering, “They called it pork. What’s pork?” Doug frowns, though Applejack had already let slip that Sweet Apple Acres raises pigs for slaughter. “Pig. It’s a bit fatty for my taste, but still very good. Did you cook it yourself?” “Yup! Roasted it up like-” Spike rears back, releasing a burst of green flame, though he quickly starts coughing. He burps up a sparkly cloud of smoke that forms into a letter. Doug takes the letter, reading aloud, “Dear Twilight. First of all, congratulations on your marriage! I’m sure you will find just as much joy as we have in ours, and with any luck just as brilliant foals! Speaking of our marriage, the other members in your family are quite interested in meeting Doug, and so we will be taking the next train to Ponyville. See you soon! Love, Velvet.” Twilight’s eyes widen. “The next train to Ponyville arrives in six hours! That’s not nearly enough time to prepare! Ooh, they’re going to be so disappointed in me! And that will ruin their first impression of you, and they’ll disown me, and never speak to either of us ever again!” She flops to the floor, hooves wildly gesticulating at nothing in particular. Doug deadpans, “Sounds like an unmitigated disaster to me.” He nonchalantly starts on the rest of his breakfast, a fork spearing some of Twilight’s and guiding it towards her mouth, Doug making little airplane noises. Twilight grunts, rolling to her hooves as Sweetie Belle and Rarity snicker. “It’s not an unmitigated disaster! Or, rather, it is totally mitigatable, we just need to get everything ready!” She reluctantly takes the bite of rice, grumbling as her horn lights and takes the fork from his hand. “Or we need to eat our breakfast.” Doug holds up a picture, showing Twilight and Rainbow grinning in the mud pit, Applejack laughing as a terrified Trixie levitates over, about to be dunked as well. “Two of eight!” Doug raises an eyebrow at Spike’s cough, “Nine?” Spike nods, Doug resolutely saying, “Nine.” He holds out the coffee cup, Twilight’s horn snagging that as well. “There’s no time for that! We need to-” One pink hoof erupts out of Twilight’s coffee cup, the front of Pinkie Pie’s head quickly following and splashing coffee down the sides. She shakes a hoof at Twilight, a deep, ominous, darkly intoned, “Collect them all…” before her tongue laps out, licking up the coffee rolling down the sides and exclaiming, “Juicy!” as she sinks back down into the dark depths. “What?” Twilight exclaims, debating dumping out the clearly full coffee cup and inspecting the insides and just rolling with it like the rest of the ponies are doing. “How can you just-” Twilight cuts herself off as Doug just sort of shrugs. “You seem stressed,” Doug calmly states, less a question and more an order as one hand comes up to find spot forty two on her back. Twilight's composure morphs faster than Pinkie Pie disappearing into the cup, her tongue lolling out, nearly losing her grip on her coffee, the fork clattering to the ground. “How about you take Rarity to the spa, get you ready for your parents visit. I’ll come by after I get the rest of these pictures, they’ll make a nice little scrapbook.” “Okay,” comes the heady reply, Twilight’s eyes rolling up as she pants. Doug’s hand lets up, Twilight rapidly coming to and glancing at the beaming unicorn mare next to her. “Oh, you’ll love it at the spa! I go there every week, and I have a robe for you and everything!” Rarity grins, her horn lighting, a light blue aura flying two white robes through the air. They are nearly identical except for the dull gold trim and embroidered R  on one of them, the other a plain white. “Now, I can modify the trim on yours to whatever color you would like, and potentially monogram a T, or an S, or really whatever you would like on the flank as well.” “Um, plain white is fine for me,” Twilight says noncommittally. Rarity’s face falls faster than Big Mac off a rickety wooden platform. “So. Another Applejack, hmm? We can’t have that, darling, now can we?” Rarity shakes her head, not waiting as she answers her own question, “Definitely not. Now, I am partial to yellows, they complement my purple mane perfectly, and would go very well with your coat or mane, though the best shade for you might be closer to an orange. But, we could go a little further out and try…” Rarity hangs the two white robes on a chair, her horn blasting the solid white trim into a light green. She purses her lips slightly, her horn blasting again and again, the shade of the green changing almost imperceptibly every time. Her smile rebounds like Rainbow Dash off the end of a diving board, “Oh, I think that would be lovely, don’t you? It goes very well with the pink stripe in your mane!” Many strips of fabric levitate over, Rarity comparing them to the robe and selecting the lime green that best fits, “Remind me to thank Trixie, it was far easier to manifest my vision than pulling out all that fabric.” “Well, you two have fun,” Doug says as he partially stands, his plate empty. He shares a quick nuzzle with Rarity and Twilight, then Sweetie Belle, and bumps fist to claw with Spike. “See you at the spa!” Rarity quickly fashions Twilight an elegant robe, fussing over the purple unicorn as she finishes her second breakfast. Sweetie Belle heads off to school, walking and chatting with Spike as Rarity and Twilight head to the Ponyville Day Spa. The green roofed building, all charming curved arches and happy pink windows, sits close to the center of Ponyville, a short walk for the two. Inside, Twilight levitates her bits to the counter of the Pony, a brief smile and nod to Aloe. The pink mare smiles back, shaking her blue mane tied back with a towel towards the chalkboard listing in swirly pink calligraphy the various massages and services offered today. Twilight turns, a slight smirk at Rarity for beating her herdmate to paying, “So, what service are we requesting?” Rarity hesitates, eyes glancing between Twilight and the bag of bits on the counter. She desperately wants to pay for the two, but she has to let her friends be generous too, right? “Oh, well, for one’s first session I would always recommend their full service, if only to get an idea for every treatment they have and which massages you like.” She continues as Twilight doesn’t leap at that suggestion, “Now, I myself almost always go for the steam room, a mud bath, and a horn filing, among other things, and I think that you would enjoy all of them!” “Oh, well, maybe we can just go with your usual, then,” Twilight says as she reads through the various other things included with the full service. “I don’t know if I want another deep tissue massage, after what Doug did.” Rarity winks at Twilight, “Mm, he tries, but what he possesses in dexterity he lacks in, how shall I say, presentation. He’s always so quick about it, eager to jump from one activity to another! This is our chance to relax!” Rarity nods to herself, her smile growing as she says chipperly to Aloe, “Two for my usual, thank you!” Aloe nods, leading the two unicorns back to one of the further, more intimate, and completely empty steam rooms. Both lie down, resting just above the hot water, deep inhales of the fragrant aromas from the oils and lotions around them. Rarity sighs loudly above the hiss as Lotus Blossom pours some secret scented material from a bucket into the pool. Several minutes later Twilight’s ears perk up, the muffled voices barely audible from the front auspicious only because of their familiarity. “No,” Twilight breathily huffs out, one of her eyes twitching. They can’t be here already! The door to the steam room opens, Aloe ushering three ponies shrouded in steam inside as her heavily accented voice belts out, “No worry about sign. You all family! Now go, go!” Aloe waves at the two unicorns already inside, then motioning for Lotus to follow. Lotus pours another cup into the pool, the steam billowing up again, before the spa pony takes her leave. “Twilight Sparkle!” they ring out as the three unicorns step forward. The only mare is in front, her purple and white striped mane and tail done up in a towel, but her bangs are a dead ringer for Twilight Sparkle’s. Her gray coat is similarly hidden under a white bathrobe, which she immediately slips out of as she bounces down to the edge of the pool. Her horn lights, the same purple as the three stars on her flank, as she lowers herself down to the inches of scalding water that barely cover the tops of her hooves. Just behind her is a blue coated stallion, his azure slightly darker than Trixie, with a darker blue mane combed off to the side. He keeps his robe on as he walks up to the pool, laying down next to Twilight, his yellow eyes twinkling as his mouth curls to a large smile. Warily bringing up the rear is a large stallion, his coat just a shade darker than pure white. His mane is patterned similar to Twilight’s but in dark and light blue streaks instead of purple and pink. His teal eyes inspect every inch of the room as if expecting somecreature to be lurking in the shadows made by the billowing steam clouds. His vigilance doesn’t fade as his face turns a slight green as he gets close to the pool, as if he is still recovering from some sort of sickness. “Hello!” bravely returns Twilight, one hoof coming up to greet her parents and brother.