I brought a broom into Twilight’s room.
She lay on the bed, facing the ceiling. A floating peach spun around in a magic field above her. She glanced at me. “You still here?”
“I thought you were okay with me staying in your castle,” I said. “I just want to help you.”
“Whatever. At least make yourself useful and throw all this trash away. Now go and let me eat my peaches in peace.”
The pile of her possessions on the floor accumulated to a dreadful height. I turned to her. “I’ll take it to my room.”
“Trixie, how dare you disobey me. I ought to—” she raised her head and brought a hoof to her chin. “banish you and put you in a dungeon at a place I banished you to.” She laughed. “Oh, these memories crack me up. Your friends are so stupid.”
My ears perked up. “I have friends?”
“No.” She dismissively waved a hoof at me. “Forget I said that. I have friends. Stupid friends, but they’re mine! You’re the despised one now.”
I stepped closer to her. “Twilight, can I ask you a question?”
“Ugh!” She snorted. “What is it?”
“If I ever got back my memories, do you think I’d turn back into the evil Trixie I was before?”
She twitched. “Don’t say that! Trixie wasn’t evil, she was just misunderstood.”
“I was?”
“Forget about your memories, Trixie. As you can see,” she pointed to her starry cutie mark, “I’m the princess of magic. Believe me when I tell you that you shall never get them back.” She caressed the necklace that she wore around her neck. “It’s best you get used to your new reality—as my servant.”
“Can I still take a peek at some of the books in your library? It never hurts to double-check, you know?”
“Do you think you earned that right yet?” Her eyes pierced me.
“No...” I whispered and proceeded with sweeping the glass shards. “I guess not.”
“You know what, Trixie. If that’s your motivation to serve me, I’ll let you earn worthiness points. When you get enough of them, I’ll lend you a book from my library. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, bookworm?”
I nodded.
“Well, you’re in luck, servant. Here’s an opportunity for you to earn some points. Come with me!” She leaped over the shards on the floor onto the pile she’d accumulated in the middle of the room.
I shook when I heard a crack under her hooves.
“It just so happens that I’m yearning for a warm bath.” She descended from the pile of fragile things and walked past me. “I haven’t had one in, like, ages. Just cold lakes to keep me clean.”
“Why did you use lakes? Don’t you have a bath in the castle?” I followed her down the hallway.
“Hm...” Her eyes shifted up. “If these memories serve me right, there’s actually a really big barrel in the basement. That’s where I’ll get the luxury I deserve. I saw a hose and a bucket in front of the castle in the morning. Fill it up with water, pour it in here and repeat until you fill it up to the edge.”
“Won’t the water spill over if I fill the barrel to the top before you get in?” A smile grew on my lips. I had felt inadequate for not having any memories, but I found something that I was apparently good at: logic. Well, at least I was more adept at it than Twilight.
“Don’t question me, smartass!” She raised her voice as we got to the basement entrance. She leaned a hoof on the wall while she gazed down the stairs. Her ears stood flat against her head.
I stepped to her. “What’s wrong?”
“Whaa?” She looked at me with eyes wide open. “Oh, nothing. Just do what you’re told! There’s nothing wrong with me!”
I nodded and trotted toward the castle’s exit. As I made my way down the stairs of the castle’s entrance, I set my sights on the hose connected to the faucet. Its vast length was retained in a few dozen curls. There were flowers planted to the side of the castle, so that’s probably why they had to install such a long hose. There was also a rusty bucket beside the wall, but I wouldn’t need it for my plan.
When I put my head through the center, I felt the full weight of the hose. It was heavy. I knew it would get easier with time, so I persisted. Walking backward toward the castle, I let it untangle over my head.
I made my way up the stairs, to the entrance, leaving a trail of hose behind me.
By the time I reached the stairs to the basement, I already untangled half of the hose, so it was much easier to carry the burden. I caught up to Twilight just when she stepped off the last step into the crystal cellar. When I bowed my head, the coiled weight slid down my neck and fell to the floor. “I left the bucket outside. The hose was long enough.”
“Um, okay...” she said, disengaged.
”I’ll go open the flow now. With this method the barrel will fill much faster than it would if I carried water in the bucket.”
“Whatever, just stop wasting my time. I want to feel the freedom of floating on the water. Bathing always relaxes me.” Her eyes darted around as she peeked into the barrel. “Wait!, there’s junk in here. This whole basement is littered with junk. As if it wasn’t confining enough.”
I looked over the edge of the barrel. There were 15 different pieces, 11 metal bars and 4 plates interconnected with wiring. “These parts still look usable.”
“It’s junk!” She proceeded to throw the intriguing parts out of the barrel.
I felt a squeeze in my chest as the plates hit the floor and broke apart.
I couldn’t bear to watch anymore. I needed to get out of there. “I’ll go open the flow.”
She seemed wary of the basement. It struck me as odd since it was supposedly a part of her home. My feelings were on the opposite spectrum of hers. What I experienced was enthusiasm at the site of the potential that the room offered. There was enough space to build a whole laboratory there, and it was already built. How amazing was that?
When I made it back to the flower garden outside of the castle, I clenched at the valve of the faucet with my mouth. When it was fully opened, and I heard water flowing through the tap, I trotted back up the stairs in the castle.
Another one of my features that I seemed to have was that I wasn’t as dismissive as Twilight. At least as the person I was at the time. How she managed to gain the title of Princess of Friendship was beyond my comprehension. She may have not realized it, but she needed me even more than I needed her. I was poised to demonstrate to her a better way to connect to fellow ponies. Gaining her trust was the first hurdle I’d have to surmount before I could show her anything.
As soon as I stepped down the last stair into the cellar, I was greeted with yelling, “You opened the cold water. And it dared to spray me! This is no different than bathing in a pond and I’m above that now. I want hot steamy water!”
“The plumbing I observed outside only supports one flow: the cold one. However, I’m sure that we could find a heater in the whole castle. Worst case scenario, we could probably make one with all these fine instruments.”
“You bathe in cold water, see how it feels! Yes, you be the bottomfeeder for a change. I want you to actually do it, and warm it up for me with your body temperature while you’re at it.”
“I’m sure there are more optimal ways for heating water than—”
“—You go in the barrel or you go out of my home!”
“Fine…” I put a hoof in it.
“Wait! You’ll get it dirty.”
I was determined to keep my cool despite losing my patience. “Make up your mind! What do you want from me?”
Her eyes shifted up. A moment later, she jerked a hoof at me. “I’ve got it! I know I’ll never use that bodysuit, so I may as well make you wear it.” She grinned and ran up the stairs. “Stay here and keep the water going.”
I sighed at that statement. “It’s flowing by itself…”
She turned and walked up the stairs. I was left alone.
Just standing there felt like a waste of time. I had so many ideas of the things I could improve upon. There was also the whole castle for me to map out, if Twilight would give me permission to do it, that is. If nothing else, the basement was right there for me to explore. I walked around.
There were large closets at the walls. Some intriguing machines in the corner and a big platform in the center. A metallic arch was spread over it.
In the middle of a wide corridor between the many tables was an iron construction. It was the size of a pony and had iron bars as if it served as a cage. There were straps welded in the sides.
When I heard hoofsteps on the stairs, I assumed my designated position near the barrel.
Twilight burst down. She carried something in the magic field above her. With both forelegs, she leaned on the edge of the barrel and looked inside. “Haven’t you filled it yet?”
I used all my willpower to stop myself from facehoofing “It’s filling itself and the flow is at maximum.”
“Well, hurry up with it, will you?” she snorted and focused upon her magic bubble.
When her horn light faded, a black fabric fell before me.
“With this clingy bodysuit, you can keep my water clean while warming it with your body temperature. It obviously wasn’t made for me.” Her body shook. “It was made before you—I got my wings. And even if it was sewn for me, I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing this hazard to personal space. You wear it!”
I didn’t know what her problem was. It was just clothes, same as my cape and that certainly wasn’t hurting me in any way. It was a stupid thing she wanted me to do, but I did need to gain her trust, so I decided to go along with it. “If you really want me to, I will do it for you, Twilight.”
“Yes, do it. How do you put that thing on, anyway?” She cocked her head.
“It has a zipper.” I showed it to her.
“Go on, dress up for me, plebeian. I want to see it touch you all over, like a hundred hooves molesting you all at once. Every movement you make will find resistance. Your body will be trapped. Bound all over. Captured. It will crumple your coat and you’ll feel it with every hair on your body. Like an ever-present all-encompassing itch that you won’t be able to scratch. A touchy hoof may be swatted away, but the enclosing fabric clings on relentlessly, unmindful of the concept of consent. No safe word can get the body out of the bind. The will of the wearer is all but disregarded. The freedom of the body is perpetually denied by the tightness of the wrapping togs.”
I picked up the cloth with a hoof. The fabric felt smooth to the touch. “It’s just clothes...” I spread it on the floor under me.
After stepping in with both hind legs I slowly pulled it up. The sleeves were narrow, so I had to use some force to stretch them enough for my legs to fit inside.
Before pulling the tight fabric over my plot, I bent back and wiggled my tail through the hole.
“Is it tight? Do you feel trapped?” Twilight pointed a hoof at my flank.
“It is a bit encroaching in the crotch area, but the material stretches, so it’s not that bad,” I explained. “The fabric is tight, but it’s not restricting my movements in any way. If I ignore the clinginess all over my body, it feels as if I’m wearing nothing at all.”
“You look silly in these tight clothes,” Twilight commented.
I didn’t say anything.
“My bath still isn’t ready! Jump in the barrel and warm up the water. Meanwhile, I’ll go upstairs, roll in my bed and half-eat the rest of my peaches.“
“Okay,” I said obediently and slipped in the barrel.