Twilight pushed open the doors silently with her magic, and together we walked inside. We stood in a large bedroom, and the first thing I noticed was that it was way bigger than my old apartment, easily 3 times as tall as me. Inside the room itself was a double bed, that looked large enough for even me to stretch out on, and at the far end of the room was a vast half-circle window half-covered with a red velvet curtain. Lastly there was a rather well-stocked bookshelf to the right of the door, which certainly piqued my interest.
Though, since Twilight was in the room, I turned my attention to her. “So… Do we share, or…?”
She turned bright red, and hastily fumbled a reply. “Oh, no, sorry. Um, yes, I forgot to tell you: I have to make sure your wound hasn’t gotten worse. I have my own room elsewhere.”
“Oh yeah, uh... That makes sense. Where do you want me to sit?”
For some reason, that got Twilight to smile. "I’m happy to know that you are comfortable about me checking your wound."
I returned her smile, though somewhat disingenuously. I still didn’t like it, but I knew I couldn’t talk her out of looking after me, so I didn’t see much reason to be impolite about it. After Twilight jumped up onto the bed, she gestured for me to sit in front of her on the floor, and so I did.
As I sat there, I remembered that I hadn’t taken a bath in almost 2 days, and I cringed inwardly. I took a few sniffs, and I smelled awful. Had Twilight put up with this all this time- and wait, I also met the Princesses smelling like this. I groaned, how mortifying.
“Hey, Twilight? Can you tell me something, and please be honest?”
She broke her intense focus on whatever she was doing to the wound on my head and replied “Hm? Of course, what is it?”
So I took a deep breath and asked “To your pony nose, do I smell bad?”
I was only glad I couldn’t see her facial expression as she heard the question.
“A wash can only do you good, so when I’m done with your wound, I will prepare a bath for you.” She said.
I sighed. I knew she wanted to help me, and all, but this was bordering on treating me like I was her infant child.
“Are you sure? Just tell me how to work it, and I'll be fine.”
“It’s not a problem at all; I just need to finish this first.” Twilight said gently.
Well, if I needed a bath, my clothes must also be dirty. Maybe there was some way I could make myself useful. “Is there also a way for me to clean my clothes?”
Her response didn’t even surprise me as she said, “While you take your bath, I can take care of that too.”
At least it sounded like I’d be able to take my bath alone, but with her, I wasn’t even sure if I’d be allowed that, so I decided to keep way away from that subject.
“It’s okay, really,” I insisted, “I can do it by myself, you don’t have to do that for me too.”
“I insist, plus it’s faster and easier to do it myself.” She stated, bluntly.
‘Well, I can’t deny her logic there, but still…’
“Are you sure Twilight?” I asked one last time, though I’d pretty much given up on the idea of being any help to her tonight.
"I’m sure." Twilight said, as I felt her apply a fresh bandage to my head. "All done, but I might have to change it again after your bath if you get it wet."
Now finished, she jumped down to the floor and walked over to a door I hadn’t noticed when I first came in, so I stood up and followed her to what was likely a pony version of a bathroom. Twilight opened the door and went inside, so I followed.
It looked mostly like a typical bathroom you might find back on Earth, which was oddly disconcerting: a fairly standard-looking shower, a large bathtub and sink, but the toilet had a rather long bowl, and if I had to guess why, it would be something to do with stallions that might come here… But never mind that, the sink was ornately gilded, and the entire room was made quite tastefully of polished marble, with a few orange bath mats on the floor.
The whole place was spotless, gorgeous, and definitely the most expensive bathroom I’d ever seen.
Twilight waited for me to finish admiring the design before she asked, "Do you want to take a shower, or relax in a bath?"
I wanted a bath pretty badly, maybe even with bubbles if I was lucky, to soak away the stresses of the past 2 days. But I knew she had meant what she said about changing the bandage on my head if I got it wet, and I didn’t want to keep her awake selfishly. That was the least I could do.
As if she were a psychic, she interrupted my thoughts by adding, "And by the way, if you want to relax in the bath, but don’t want to keep me awake, I’ll go and take a bath myself if you do, so you wouldn’t be keeping me."
‘I don’t know how she does it, but she always knows just what to say…’ I thought to myself. It took her giving me an odd look to remind me that I had, in fact, not responded to anything she had said for the last minute or so. Whoops.
“Could I have a bath?” I asked, and I hoped she was being truthful when she said this was ok.
She got a smile on her face and got her front legs up in the air, and clapped them together while letting out an excited “Yay!”, which looked so adorable.
She came back to the ground again, blushed as she said "Umm… I was hoping you were going to say that."
She walked over to the bath and turned on the taps, and as the tub began to fill, and steam started to fill the air, I let out a big but soundless sigh.
When the water had filled to over half, Twilight poured some kind of soap in the water, and a short time later, when the bath was three-quarters full, Twilight turned off the taps.
Twilight walked towards the door as she asked “You said you wanted your clothes washed as well, right?”
Still curious about why she wouldn’t let me do it myself, I answered, “Yeah, I did say that.”
We both stood there awkwardly for a moment.
“Soo, can I have them now, and you can begin to enjoy the water?”
Then it hit me, she was a pony, she was naked all day and night. Even the Princesses were naked.
“If you go out of the bathroom, then I will give them to you.” I said.
That took her by surprise, and she must have realized humans didn’t go around naked like ponies did, because, with a nervous smile, she walked backward out of the bathroom.
Once Twilight was out of the bathroom, I gently closed the door before I took my clothes off, and as I lay them on the floor, Twilight said “Oh… By the way, there are some towels under the sink, just use as many as you need to.”
I opened the door a little bit, tossed my clothes out to Twilight, and answered. “I will, thank you.”
As I was about to close the door, she said, “I will be back in thirty minutes, but don’t try and dry your hair if you are done before then. It needs to be done carefully.”
“I’ll remember.” I answered, relaxed.
“You promise?” She asked.
Maybe she didn’t believe me? With everything she’d done today, I almost replied ‘Yes, Mom’, but I managed to stop myself.
“I promise,” I answered, sincerely. “See you in half an hour.”
“Have a nice bath!” Twilight said.
“You too,” I said, and I went over to the bath, which was the perfect temperature, and I got in. I began to clean my whole body, and it felt great.
After about fifteen minutes, I was all cleaned up, and since I had another fifteen minutes, I relaxed.
After some time, I was about to fall asleep, and since I was clean and Twilight would be back in about ten minutes, I decided to get up, and the towels were precisely where Twilight said they would be and luckily for me, the towels were the perfect size for me and incredibly soft.
As I dried myself, I remembered that Twilight had said that I shouldn't dry my hair, and to wait for her to do it. The ends of my hair were annoying me, though, so I placed a towel between my shoulders and my hair in the hopes that it would dry the ends at least a little. Then I took a second towel around my waist and made a knot to make sure it would stay in place, and used a third, smaller towel to dry off those drops of water that I had missed.
I went back into the bedroom, and since there was nothing to do, I began to think.
‘Why can I understand what Twilight is saying? I mean, it sounds like English, but is there something in my brain translating for me, and if so, then could I read their language too?’
I went over to the bookshelf and saw a book called ‘The Foundation Of Equestria, Volume 1’ as I thought, ‘So yes, they either write in English, or my brain is translating again.’ Come to think about it, all the signs I had read on the way to my room were also in English. On the desk nearby was a piece of parchment and a feather quill, maybe I could do a little experiment?
Before I could do anything, a few knocks came from my door, and a voice called out, “It’s me, Twilight, may I come in?”
“Yeah, come on in,” I said.
Twilight walked in, with my clothes in a neat pile drifting along behind her in her magic. She saw me standing next to the bookcase and her eyes lit up in excitement.
“Are you looking for something to read?”
“No… Not really, I just got curious to see if I could read your language, as I can speak it.”
At that, she got excited. She practically threw my folded clothes onto the bed, and went over to me, asking eagerly “Did you find out?”
“I can read your language and numbers, but I’m curious to see if I can write it too,”
She tilted her head to the side "If you can read it, shouldn't that also mean that you can write too?"
A valid point. “I don’t know, but since I haven’t ever written with a quill before, I was actually looking for something else to write with instead.”
“Wait here!” she said, before quickly running away.
She came back a few seconds later with a pink crayon, and she said with an apologetic voice, “Sorry, I couldn't find anything else.”
I released a sigh. “It’s fine.”
I went over to the table and wrote in what I knew to be English ‘First night in Canterlot, thanks to my friend, Twilight Sparkle.’
I gave it to Twilight, and after I knew she had read it at least three times, she said with a happy voice, "You’re welcome, my friend."
"What is this language called?" I asked.
With what I would now call her lecture voice, she answered, "We call it Ponish." As I followed her to the bed.
Well, at least if I got stuck here I wouldn’t be illiterate. That was certainly a silver lining.
Twilight then gestured for me to come and sit where I sat before, and when I sat down, she took the bandage off, and started to dry my hair.
All of my thinking earlier had reminded me of something that Princess Celestia had said earlier today, so I decided I’d probe Twilight for an explanation.
“Say, Twilight, what did you mean, when you said you didn’t know if I would work as the focus?”
Twilight sighed. “I know the Princess knows a lot more than I do, but I don’t understand what she has in mind…”
I gave her a look, a look that said ‘we are not conversing on the same level’.
She seemed to pick up on this. “Do you have portals in your world?”
I shook my head, and Twilight started her lecture. “Hm, well, do you understand the concept at least? To create a gateway from one location to another?”
I nodded. “Yeah, we have the concept, but it’s just a fantasy where I’m from.”
She grinned. “That much we share then. Even the least sophisticated portal spell, a teleport, is very difficult to cast. At the moment, I’d be surprised if even 10 unicorns are alive that are capable of the spell.”
She sounded like an overeager science professor, which was endearing, but dreadfully boring to listen to at the moment. I sighed heavily, and Twilight cleared her throat awkwardly in response.
“Aaaanyhow… Like all spells, Portals require a focus to be cast, and to put it simply foci absorb the magic of the spell to…”
She waved a hoof vaguely in the air, searching for some way of explaining this to me, as a person does when explaining a concept to someone who doesn’t even have the foundational knowledge to even properly understand the prerequisite concepts involved in the discussion at hand.
She clicked her tongue frustratedly. “...To make it, well, happen. And the Princess says she intends to use you as the focus, which worried me because of what happens when a focus can’t handle the spell it contains.”
‘This could only be bad’ I thought, but I had to at least ask. “And what does happen?”
“The focus burns out.” Came her simple reply.
It was incredibly disconcerting to have her say I was in danger of death if this plan didn’t work out with such cold academic recital. If tomorrow did go awry, would I be reduced to only another textbook example of magical theory to her?
We sat in silence after she said that.
“But, as I said, the Princess surely knows what she’s doing. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
I know it might sound silly, but hearing that really did set me at ease. If I’d tried to tell my past self this, I knew I wouldn’t believe me. But there was something about invoking the Princess of the Sun’s wisdom here that truly relieved me. It wasn’t the feeling of power she emanated, or at the very least not just that; it was everything about her that I’d come to understand from our brief meeting earlier.
I wasn’t quite as worried as I had been, and my curiosity was sated for the time being, so I decided to sit back and relax, and let Twilight finish off with my hair.
-
Once Twilight had dried my hair; while being careful around the wound, she was even so careful that I, again, couldn't feel it, and with my hair now dry, she placed a new piece of cloth on my wound before she wrapped a fresh bandage around my forehead to hold it in place.
"All done." She said, satisfied.
As she jumped down from the bed, I looked at her, I said with a happy voice "You kept your promise, I couldn't even feel it."
She giggled and said, "I told you."
But as if on cue, we both yawned at the same time.
"Well, goodnight, I’ll see you in the morning." she said.
“Goodnight Twilight.” I said, yawning. I was exhausted.
As she walked out of the room, and closed the door behind her, I put on my underwear and got into the bed. The mattress was so soft, but not like a waterbed. It was almost like a soft cloud embracing me as I sank a short way into it. The blankets were just as soft as a cat, and the pillow was firm but not hard. It wasn’t at all difficult to get comfortable, and to fall asleep.