Fluttershy sighed, curling closer to Discord. He wrapped an arm around her, holding her closer, pulling the bedsheets up to her chin. "Long day?" he murmured into her mane.
"Mhm," she said. "Seraphim was causing some trouble today, and he convinced some of his siblings to join in." She nestled into his neck. "He doesn't look like Angel, but he certainly takes after him in his younger days."
He ran his fingers through her mane. "You've been working hard at the sanctuary all week. At least tomorrow's the weekend, and you can relax."
"Relaxing does sound nice...after I finish the morning checkups and feeding."
Discord sighed. "Can't you just...not do those? Let Dr. Fauna and the volunteers take care of everything and spend the whole day just relaxing?"
She shook her head. "No, I have to do the morning checkups so that I can delegate tasks for the day...and I can't imagine not helping with feeding the animals at least once during the day..."
He sighed again, placing his chin on top of her head. "Alright. I'll just have to make sure you relax as much as possible for the rest of the day." She made a soft noise in response, but nothing else. "Sweetie?"
She was fast asleep, her breathing soft and steady. He shifted his grip on her, making sure she had plenty of space to turn in her sleep, before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep himself.
Discord glanced around the room one last time, checking and making sure everything was perfect. Once he was sure, he nodded to himself and teleported to the living room, laying down on the couch and keeping his gaze focused on the front door.
He pulled a glittery pink pocketwatch out of his mouth, his tongue acting as the chain. He flicked it open, nodding to himself when he saw that only fifteen minutes had passed since Fluttershy had left. If she's not back in the next fifteen, he thought, I'm going over there to steal her away. Weekends are supposed to be her days off, she shouldn't be pressed into working.
He snapped his tongue back into his mouth, swallowing the watch. He kept one eye trained on the door but swiveled the other so that it was facing the ornate grandfather clock pressed against the wall.
Just five minutes later, the front door opened, and Fluttershy stepped inside. "Sorry I'm so late. Some of the volunteers were completely new, and I had to figure out what areas they should go to so they could watch and learn."
He gave his head a quick shake, rolling his eyeballs back to their normal positions, before swimming through the air towards her. "There's nothing to be sorry for," he said as he circled her. "If it was a problem, I'd have gone over and picked you up."
She smiled, kissing his cheek. "Well, I have the rest of the day free." She brushed a wing against his back. "Do you have anything in mind?"
He shivered at her touch, floating lower to the ground as his muscles went limp. She brushed a hoof under his chin, and he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from blabbing something sappy. He closed his eyes and shook his head with the sound of a tolling bell, quickly straightening his posture.
"You may not remember—because you passed out afterward—but last night, I promised I would make sure you relax as much as possible." He bent at the waist, offering her his arm. "If the fair lady will allow me to be her escort..."
She giggled, sliding her hoof into the crook of his arm. He straightened up, and she bobbed up into the air next to him, floating without even needing to use her wings. He spun in place, the room's colors blurring around them, starting to shift into more subdued shades—baby blue, pastel pink, and white.
With a click of his heels, Discord's spinning suddenly stopped, jerking her to a halt. She closed her eyes and leaned her head on his shoulder, waiting for the dizziness to go away. He patted the top of her head gently, mumbling a soft apology.
Soon, her head felt clear, and she opened her eyes. She found herself staring at a plain wall with pink, blue, and white stripes. She looked up at Discord and rose an eyebrow.
"Uh, whoops!" he said. "Looks like I made us face the wrong direction." He turned around, pulling her alongside him.
She gasped softly. The rest of the room looked like a strange version of the Ponyville Day Spa. There was a large hot tub (decorated to look like a volcano), which was filling the whole room with steam. There were two soft massage chairs nearby, with white gloves that matched the shape of Discord's hands draped on the back of each. Piled in the corner were buckets of materials—she could see green mud masks and cucumber slices from where she was floating.
"Like it?" Discord said, pulling his arm away from hers and letting her drift slowly to the ground. "I was thinking of getting us into Ponyville Day Spa, but it is just so busy on weekends! Most of the masseuses were booked." He floated up and begin to pace in midair.
"And I thought, well, if there are that many creatures around, the crowd would make it impossible for you to relax." He spread his arms out, gesturing around him. "So I thought I'd take what I know from our trips there and make us our very own at-home spa!"
He clasped his hands together, grinning. "Discord, this...this is amazing!" she said. "You made all of this in the twenty minutes I was gone?"
He waved it off. "Oh, I may have created a few things to throw in here during breakfast. It wasn't all in just twenty minutes." He smirked. "Though most of it was."
She giggled, walking over to the hot tub. With a flap of her wings, she could peer over the edge. The rim was covered in glowing lava, and she bit her lip, glancing over at Discord. He floated up beside her and pressed down on the lava, showing that it was just a foamy substance, which gave easily under the pressure he put on it. She relaxed after seeing this.
She turned her attention to the water in the tub. It was bubbling gently and giving off steam that smelled faintly of lavender. She carefully floated down, dipping her back hooves into it before letting the rest of her body sink in slowly.
She leaned her head back with a sigh, spreading her forehooves on the lava cushion. The water was wonderfully warm, and the seat was in the perfect position for her to comfortably sit and lean on the comfortably warm cushion on the rim.
With a loud whoop, Discord dropped from the air above like a rock. He splashed down into the middle of the hot tub, making her shield her face from the water he splashed onto her.
He paddled a few laps around the tub, then swam over to her and leaned against the edge. "Feels good, right?" She nodded. "Good. I wasn't sure if it wasn't hot enough, or too hot..."
She nuzzled against his shoulder. "It's great."
He gestured behind him, and a large can of green mud with a paintbrush inside floated over to them. He grabbed the handle. "Care for a mud mask? I made it just like Aloe and Lotus do."
She smiled. "Alright." He smiled and began to paint the mud onto her face. She giggled as the bristles tickled her face. After a few minutes of making sure there was a good layer of mud on her face, he pulled away and became quiet. She heard the signs of a struggle and opened her eyes.
He had stuck his head inside the can of mud and seemed to be struggling to pull himself out. "Ah cah't ge it!" he shouted.
She sighed, grabbed the can, and pulled as hard as she could. It slipped off of his head and went sailing over the edge of the hot tub, landing to the floor with a clang. Discord, his face completely covered in green mud, winced. "I'll clean that up later."
He smeared the mud around on his face, smoothing it out a bit (and leaving fingerprints behind), then clapped his hands together. A covered silver tray floated over to them, and he whipped the cover off with a flourish to reveal four circular cucumber slices.
Fluttershy smiled and grabbed two of them, leaning back and getting ready to place them on her eyes. Discord just snatched the other two and slapped them onto his face, but frowned in confusion. He suddenly lunged forward, grabbing her hooves just before she could put on her cucumber slices.
"Wait!" he said. "Those are mine, and they're not cucumbers!" He pulled the slices off his eyes, grabbed the ones she was holding out of her hooves, and let the others float gently over her eyes.
"Discord, if those weren't cucumbers, what were they?" she asked, hearing him flop back onto the edge next to her.
"Green peppers," he said. "The capsaicin helps make my eyes more vibrant, and cucumbers don't really help with my eye bags anyway." She heard him chewing. "Plus, they're much tastier. I'm sorry. I should have labeled everything more clearly—you almost had burning eyes!"
She shifted closer to him. "It's alright. You stopped me in time. My hero," she said with a giggle. After a bit of splashing, he managed to wrap an arm around her shoulders and pull her closer to him.
After what seemed like a few more minutes in the tub, during which she almost found herself nodding off, an alarm clock began to beep annoyingly. "Ugh," Discord said. "It's been twenty minutes already?"
Fluttershy pulled the cucumber slices off of her eyes. Discord, nibbling on one of his pepper slices, was flinging an alarm clock across the room. "And why did I make that thing so annoying?" he said, swallowing his slice.
She sighed and began to crawl out of the tub, shivering as the cool air touched her skin. Discord crawled out after her, falling to the ground in a wet, sopping heap. He raised one claw and snapped, and the hot tub began to boil, releasing more steam into the air.
She flew down next to him, offering him a hoof. He accepted it, pulling himself back into a standing position. "Thanks," he said. "I guess more hot tube time will have to wait. Wouldn't want your precious smooth hooves to get all pruney."
"Or you to fall asleep in the tub again," she said, setting her cucumber slices down. "Are those massage chairs?"
He nodded, laying on his stomach on one of them. "Do you want another set of cucumber slices?"
She shook her head, laying down on the other table. "Maybe later, when we're in the hot tub again."
As soon as she had laid down, the gloves lifted into the air, moving as though an invisible Discord was putting them on. They moved behind her, out of her sight, and began to gently rub at her shoulders. She sighed and sank into the soft chair, while a glance to her right told her Discord was receiving the same treatment.
He twirled his finger in the air, turning their chairs so that they were facing each other. Discord reached down, his hands clipping through the ground, and pulled up fistfuls of hoof polish.
"Remember when we used to have sleepovers and do makeovers?" he said, letting the bottles hover between them. "I thought it'd be nice to do something like that again."
She shivered as the gloves stroked the margins of her wings. "T-that sounds nice," she said. She looked over the selection and pointed out a glossy pink polish. "I'd like that one, please."
He nodded, grabbing it out of the air. "I'd like these, in whatever pattern you choose, please," he said, pushing bottles of glossy lime green and sky blue, and glittery neon yellow and bright orange in her direction. The other colors landed on the ground, while their choices remained floating in front of them.
She pulled the brush out of the blue polish, while he unsheathed the claws on his lion paw. She became to paint them, while he stared to paint her right hoof. The gloves were still massaging their backs.
They finished painting each others' hooves and claws around the same time the gloves lifted away from them, dusting themselves off and hanging back on the chairs. Discord began blowing on his fingers, glaring at his wet claws. He took it a deep breath, then blew a cloud of red smoke over his hands. The polish dried immediately.
She held her front hooves out to him, and he blew the same cloud of red smoke over them. His breath was hot, almost painfully so, but her polish dried, and the cloud dissipated immediately after. "Thank you," she said, hopping off of the bed.
He shook his head, making a clicking sound with his mouth. "My dear Fluttershy, I haven't touched your back hooves yet! If you lay back down, I'll get them done in no time."
She sat down, and he approached, pouring the hoof polish she had chosen onto a paintbrush. With just a few quick swipes, her back hooves were polished, and another cloud of red smoke dried them.
"Thank you, Discord." She got off the bed, grabbing the colors he had chosen. "Now, what about polishing your back hooves?"
He sat up on his chair, placing his feet on a footstool as three small paintbrushes and one large one appeared in front of her. She smiled and used them to polish his hoof and claws—each dragon claw a different color, of course—before Discord finished them off by blowing the same cloud of red smoke.
"Now, what say we try the hot tub again?" he said, snapping his fingers. "Our polish won't wear off until we want it to."
She nodded, and they both flew back over to the tub.
When the grandfather clock in the living room tolled noon, Fluttershy and Discord appeared inside the kitchen in a flash of light. Fluttershy was in Discord's arms, nuzzling against his chest, while he bent down and nuzzled her cheek.
Their faces were flushed slightly from the hot tub and steam, and there were some traces of mud masks still on their chins and foreheads. Fluttershy shivered as they entered the room, prompting Discord to snap his fingers and summon fluffy bathrobes for the both of them before setting her down in her chair.
As he took his seat, bowls of soup appeared in front of both of them. They both began eating, though they would keep glancing up at the other and chuckling to themselves.
After another few soaks in the hot tub, they had decided to do their hair and makeup. But Discord was never to type to have a "small" makeover—he insisted on going all the way, as they did during their sleepovers in the past.
His mane had several tiny braids sticking out of it, as many as she could fit in, and between those braids, he had put his mane into curlers. His goatee and tail feathers were also tied into braids, tied off with small yellow ribbons. He was wearing bright orange eye shadow and black mascara, glossy pink lipstick, and had a large amount of blue blush on his cheeks. Fluttershy looked up at him and giggled.
He glanced up at her and grinned. He had managed to fill her mane and tail with messy braids, and add some mane glitter to them. He had added what were supposed to be designs of golden vines on her front hooves, but just ended up turning them into a pink-and-gold mess. Her makeup looked nice, with pink eye shadow, lip gloss, and blush, but he had ended up putting on too much blush and eye shadow, meaning most of her face was covered in glittery pink powder.
They both looked at each other for a few more seconds, biting their lips, before they burst out laughing.
After a few seconds of chuckling, they managed to calm down, Discord swiping a tear out of the corner of his eye. "Heh, I don't think any creature is going to hire me as a makeup artist anytime soon." This got another chuckle out of Fluttershy.
"Do you want to hit the spa again after this? Or maybe just spend the rest of the day doing nothing?" he asked, pouring some maple syrup into his soup before taking a spoonful and nodding in satisfaction.
"Maybe we can use the spa again another day," she said. "Right now, I'd just like to—" she yawned. "Curl up and take a little nap. Spa trips always seem to make me sleepy, especially when there's a hot tub involved."
"Your wish is my command," he said, lifting his bowl and drinking the rest of his soup. He took bites out of the bowl until she finished her soup, at which point he snapped his fingers and teleported them both into their bed.
She yawned, closing her eyes and snuggling against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and she smiled when she felt him playing with the braids in her mane. As he pulled the covers up to her chin, she slowly drifted off to sleep.