There were so many springs in and around the town that Typhoon found it almost impossible to choose one when she flew up to a cloud to scout them out. Eventually, she settled on one situated on one of the city’s eastern hills, where the water bubbling up from the springs ran down the rocks in tiny waterfalls until it pooled in the lake. The springs themselves offered what were assuredly spectacular views of the surrounding countryside, and the large wooden building nestled between them promised food and drink for the guests as they bathed. Hammer was right; it was exactly what Typhoon needed after a long day’s flight, and maybe the warm waters would help her aching chest.
Gliding down from her lofty perch, Typhoon landed on a large wooden deck jutting halfway off the side of the hill, her hooves striking a swift staccato against the boards as they touched down in succession. A few ponies sitting at tables or leaning against the railing overlooking Boiling Springs gave her casual glances before returning to their own conversations, though a couple of wary looks failed to escape her notice. It ruffled her feathers to know that any pegasus who looked like a former legionary would provoke that response in the people the Legion once protected, and it took her a few extra shakes of her wings to get her feathers in order and comfortable as she surveyed her surroundings.
The deck was more like an outdoor lounge of sorts, with plenty of tables, chairs, and couches scattered around to allow ponies to relax when they weren’t soaking in the hot springs. At this time in the afternoon, the deck was only half-full, with towel-clad patrons enjoying an early dinner before presumably things became too crowded. A few attractive mares and handsome stallions in fine silks drifted between the different patrons, checking in on them and offering food or refreshments as needed. It wasn’t too long before a purple earth pony approached Typhoon, respectfully bowing his head as he drew closer.
“Welcome to Eagle Springs, Miss,” he greeted her in a soft and pleasant voice. “My name is Lavender. You look like you’re from out of town; if that’s true, Boiling Springs welcomes you.”
“I already got the soldier’s welcome in the markets,” Typhoon wryly remarked, eliciting a sharp wince from the stallion that he quickly covered up under the mask of professionalism.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Miss,” he said, offering her another respectful dip of his head. “But I assure you the atmosphere at Eagle Springs is much more pleasant. Is there anything I can get for you? Food or water? Or perhaps some guidance to the springs?”
“Yes, on all accounts,” Typhoon said. “Whatever the chef’s special is, I’ll take that. As for the springs, I’d appreciate something private.”
“We have several smaller pools around the edges of the springs separated by woven mats that would be perfect for a private soak. And the chef’s special is a sauteed asparagus and mushroom dish topped with a flower of the day. I believe today’s flower is calla lilies.”
Typhoon’s mouth watered at the thought of appetizing food. “That all sounds great. Especially the lilies. They’re a favorite of mine.”
“Then I certainly hope we don’t disappoint, Miss. If you’d follow me…”
Lavender turned around and began to walk off the deck and toward the buildings in the heart of the springs, and Typhoon followed. The two ponies walked past a bar that was just beginning to open up to a few early customers, and more silk-clad attendants bustled between the buildings as Eagle Springs prepared to receive the evening’s visitors. Soon they left the deck and the buildings behind, instead emerging onto a large open-air stone terrace filled with the sounds of running water and genial chatter. Countless springs and streams bubbled out of pools in the stone, with most trickling down to a large pond wreathed in steam and filled with countless colorful ponies. Mares and stallions, young and old, families and friends, the springs were host to a cross-section of the ponies who called Boiling Springs their home, all relaxing and enjoying the simple luxury of hot, fresh water. It reminded Typhoon of the Cloudsdale bathhouse, one of the centerpieces of the symbol of pegasus might and their proud Cirran heritage, but married to an earth pony love of the natural world.
Typhoon’s attendant led her past all of this, taking her along wooden pathways laid across treacherous rocks and between a half dozen small bubbling pools. At the far end of the terrace, overlooking Boiling Springs itself, were numerous partitions made from reeds woven together and supported on simple wooden trusses. Steam rose from behind several, and a couple shots of laughter punctuated the springs with their noise. Hanging from the foremost post of each partition was a small piece of wood, with one side painted red and the other painted green. Lavender went up to one with the green side facing outwards and flipped it over with his hoof, then gestured past the woven walls. “I think you’ll enjoy this one, Miss. There’s nothing better than watching the sun set over the city while soaking in the springs. I’ll have somepony bring you your food and drink shortly.”
“Thank you,” Typhoon said, moving to enter, but when she saw the stallion tentatively lift his hoof off the ground she stopped and chuckled to herself. “Of course. How much?”
“Two bits for an hour in the springs, and two for the food and drink,” he said with an apologetic smile.
Typhoon nodded and dug through her purse until she pulled out ten bits and dropped them into his outstretched hoof. “Three hours, then. Keep the two extra for yourself.”
The attendant tucked the bits away in a pocket hidden in his silk robes and bowed deeply. “Thank you for your kindness, Miss. Please, enjoy your time in the springs.”
He left her to enjoy the springs on her own, and Typhoon stepped past the woven walls, taking a deep breath of the warm and humid air. Beyond the barriers was a small bubbling spring, maybe large enough to comfortably seat four ponies around its perimeter, with more woven mats covering up the stone to provide traction on the slick rock. Two benches stocked with towels flanked the spring, and a carefully manicured and well-tended tree grew from a corner of the bubbling water to provide shade during the daytime. At the far end of the private spring, the rocks thinned out to only a few inches wide, where the bubbling runoff trickled over the stones and down the hill, ultimately collecting in a stream that fed the lake in the center of Boiling Springs. Framed beneath the drooping branches of the tree and the glittering waters of the spring was the sun, creeping onwards past midday as it made its trek westward. In two or three hours, it would finally reach down to touch the far horizon, and Typhoon could only imagine how splendid that would look. Hopefully she could see the sunset before her time in the springs was up.
The aging mare shed her bags from her back, carefully setting them down next to the wall on her left, and placed her sword in front of them, the hilt angled ever so slightly toward the water. She stopped and stared at her unconscious placement of the weapon, and only shook her head with a snort. What need did she have to make sure her sword was in reach of the spring? What ambush was she preparing for while she bathed in the waters? What menace would she have to defend herself from while dripping wet from her soak?
“You’re an old soldier,” she muttered to herself, and she tentatively tested the temperature with her flesh and blood forehoof, humming as she felt the pleasantly hot water lap at her fetlock. “Fighting’s all you’ve ever known. Couldn’t even stop long enough to be a grandma, let alone a mother…”
Rocky steps laid submerged beneath the surface, and Typhoon used them to step into the water. She let out a sigh and instinctually fluttered her wings as the warm water worked its way up past her withers, and for a moment, she felt like she was floating on a physical manifestation of bliss. She closed her eyes, drawing the steamy air through her nose and letting it fill her lungs, then slowly rocked backwards until she sat down on a ledge. The water lapped against her chin, and she ducked her head beneath the water for a moment, completely submerging herself in the spring. When she emerged, she did so with another sigh and groan of satisfaction, and she leaned back against the edge of the pond and hummed as she felt the warm water bubble up through cracks in the rock by her hind hooves. The aches and pains plaguing her chest and joints seemed to melt away, and the old soldier was already thanking Hammer in her mind for the recommendation. It was exactly what she needed. It even reminded her of home, of the Cloudsdale Bathhouse…
“Why did you come here, Queen Platinum?”
…perhaps a little bit too much.
“You would betray Equestria over this? Over Cirra?”
“Call me a traitor and I guarantee somepony will take it upon themselves to make sure you don’t leave Cloudsdale alive.”
Typhoon frowned and tried to blot out the memory, the memory from the last time she’d soaked in the Cloudsdale Bathhouse. But try as she might, she couldn’t stop her brain from setting the stage behind her closed eyes. In the marble white halls of the bathhouse, a pegasus and a unicorn sat in a pool of gently bubbling, steamy water, scowls on both their faces. Typhoon felt the scowl on hers; matching it was the one beneath the sharp magenta eyes of the unicorn sitting across from her, and the scathing retort she was about to deliver.
Typhoon once more ducked her head into the spring water, letting the sensation of hot water running over her face and neck push the memory away for her. No. Not yet. She wasn’t ready to confront those ghosts. She doubted if she ever would.
She held out as long as she could before breaching the surface with her snout, blowing steam from her nostrils like a surfacing dolphin’s blowhole. When she opened her eyes, she paused when she saw three young mares hesitating in the entrance to her private spring, and she fixed them with a sharp frown. “Occupied,” she brusquely told them, turning around and putting her back to them with a grunt.
“Oh of course, I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to intrude,” one of the mares said, though approaching hoofsteps seemed to bely that statement. “I’m Juniper, and these two are Wren and Sparrow. We’re with Eagle Springs. Your attendant said you might like a massage after a long day flying.”
Typhoon raised an eyebrow and turned around, giving the three mares a closer look than the dismissive glance she’d spared them earlier. They were three, a pegasus and two unicorns, wearing the white silk robes that Typhoon had seen the attendants wearing earlier. All three had smiles and young, pretty faces—almost too young, Typhoon noted to herself. They all looked like teenagers, closer to mares than fillies but teenagers all the same. The pegasus had white wings with blue primaries, one unicorn had gray dappling on her green face, and the second had curiously mismatched eyes, one blue and one pink, that she tried to obscure beneath a wave of messy mane. Their features gave them an exotic appeal, and Typhoon understood immediately why Eagle Springs would employ them to attend to its guests’ needs.
“I never asked for a massage,” Typhoon simply told them.
“It’s free of charge for the private springs,” the dappled unicorn, Juniper, said, and her companions nodded in agreement. “Besides, no trip to the springs would be complete without a massage, and for you, a preening. Wren has a very delicate touch when it comes to feathers,” she added with an accompanying glance at the pegasus by her side.
Typhoon considered their offer for a few moments. While she wanted nothing more than to enjoy the springs in quiet and solitude, she had paid for three hours, after all. And besides, a massage and a preening did seem like a tempting offer…
“Fine,” Typhoon said, turning her back to them once more and spreading out her wings so they draped over the back of her stone seat cut into the spring. “Might as well enjoy the peace and quiet before launching myself back into the fray.”
The unicorn with the mismatched eyes paused and gave Typhoon a curious look. “You’re a soldier?” she asked. Something marked her voice that took Typhoon a moment to place her hoof on. Awe, maybe?
“Nihil erit post Legionem,” Typhoon only murmured to herself, the words of an ancient oath slipping out of her mouth almost subconsciously. “Not anymore.”
The dappled unicorn shot her friend a disapproving look, then sat down behind Typhoon. Her horn glowed with orange magic, and soon an aura appeared across Typhoon’s shoulders and back. “Relax and take slow, deep breaths. We’ll do all the work. You just lose yourself in the moment.”
Typhoon felt Juniper’s magic press into stiff muscles, and a sigh managed to escape her lips. The unicorn giggled softly, and Typhoon felt her roll her magic across her back, from one shoulder to the other, back and forth. While she did so, the other pegasus, Wren, gingerly took Typhoon’s right wing in her hooves before placing her muzzle down to the roots of her primaries and slipping one between her lips. Typhoon stiffened at first at the intimate contact, but forced herself to relax as the other pegasus slowly and carefully preened her wings for her. It had been so long since she’d let another pony touch her wings in such a matter that she felt awkward and uncomfortable at first, but gradually she found herself warming to Wren’s touch.
Just as she was starting to drift off and zone out, however, a sharp, startled yelp snapped her out of her meditative bliss. She snapped her head to the left, toward where the sound came from, and her eyes harshly narrowed on what she saw. The unicorn with the mismatched eyes, Sparrow, dropped Typhoon’s sword from her magic with a frightened shout, and the magical blade clattered on the rocks, with strands of wispy frost seeping out through the narrow slit where hilt met scabbard. Both Juniper and Wren stopped what they were doing as well, and Juniper angrily snapped at Sparrow. “What are you doing, idiot?!”
“That sword!” Sparrow cried, shrinking back from it in fear like a dog cringing away from its master’s club. “It’s evil! It’s filled with hate!”
“What are you…?” Typhoon started, but the words failed when she saw her opened saddlebags and their contents spilled across the floor. While Juniper and Wren had distracted her with a massage and preening, Sparrow had been digging through her bags. But before Typhoon could react, she heard a knife slip from its scabbard and felt the cold bite of steel against her neck, right under her jaw, as Juniper pressed it to her throat with her magical grip.
“Stay still and nopony has to get hurt,” the unicorn hissed into her ear. Then she turned to her friends. “Grab her things and go.”
“But the sword—!” Sparrow began, only to be abruptly cut off with a growl from Wren.
“If you’re too much of a wuss to carry it, give it to me!” the pegasus ordered, stomping past Typhoon and Juniper and giving Sparrow a rough shove as she reached for the weapon.
In that moment of distraction, Typhoon quickly channeled her magic and kicked off of the bottom of the spring, driving the back of her head into Juniper’s nose and eliciting a bloody crunch and shout from the young mare. Leaping out of the spring, Typhoon squared her stance as Juniper staggered backwards, blood pouring from her broken nose, but her grip on her knife still steady and strong. “Bitch!” the unicorn screamed, and she thrusted her knife at Typhoon, only for it to harmlessly slide off of her coat. Juniper’s eyes widened in surprise, and when she fetched her knife with her magic, the blade glistened with ice along its length, completely blunting the edge.
“Something tells me you’re not part of the hospitality staff,” Typhoon dryly remarked, spreading her wings and slowly stomping toward the three.
But rather than taking the opportunity Typhoon had given them to flee, Juniper instead barked orders to her fellow thieves. “Get that stuff and go! What are you waiting for?!”
Wren nodded and snatched Typhoon’s bags in her mouth, making to take off with them, but Typhoon was faster. Channeling her ice magic into the water running off of her coat, Typhoon filled the air with tiny icy shards, only large enough to leave scratches but nothing more. Yet the sudden explosion of ice and the accompanying pain from a dozen or so small cuts was enough to stun the three young mares, and Typhoon used her open wing to splash water from the spring at Wren, freezing it the moment it made contact with the pegasus’ hooves and wings, binding them together and pinning her to the ground. The pegasus squawked in surprise at the sudden freezing sensation holding her down, and her grunts and gasps soon became shivering stutters as her icy restraints sapped the warmth from her limbs.
Juniper recovered the fastest and quickly snapped at Sparrow, “Get her out of there!” before lunging at Typhoon. But the youthful unicorn was little match for the seasoned veteran, and Typhoon waited until the last moment to pivot on her hooves and use Juniper’s momentum against her to toss her aside and through the partition dividing her spring with the one beside it. The woven mats fell with a clatter as Juniper flailed through them, ending with a splash as she fell into the neighboring hot spring, sending a group of pegasi all lounging in the waters scrambling out of them in alarm. The unicorn stuck her head out of the water and gasped as Typhoon walked to the edge and stuck her hoof into the spring, and within moments the entire surface was covered with two inches of ice, trapping Juniper save her head in the water below.
Typhoon grunted, feeling pain in her chest from that maneuver as she aggravated her rib injury. So much for a relaxing stay at the springs; she might need an extra hour to melt that pain away. But there was still one would-be thief to deal with, and when Typhoon turned around, she saw Sparrow trying to free Wren by prying the ice apart with her magic. When Sparrow saw her looking at her, however, the unicorn froze in fear, locking up with widened eyes as Typhoon slowly walked toward her. “S-Sparrow?” Wren asked through chattering teeth, struggling to see what was happening with the angle Typhoon had frozen her head at. “W-What’s h-h-happening? G-Get m-m-me out of h-h-here!”
But Sparrow didn’t react as Typhoon drew closer. Instead, the young unicorn could only watch as the aging soldier stopped right in front of her, a disapproving frown hanging on her muzzle. It was only when Typhoon’s metal hoof stepped in a puddle of water and the liquid froze solid with an audible snap that Sparrow flinched, turned tail, and fled as fast as she could, leaving her two companions behind as she careened through Eagle Springs, trying to put as much distance between her and Typhoon as possible.
Typhoon watched her go, and moments later Lavender galloped up to her with a concerned and apologetic look on his face. “Are you alright, Miss?” he asked her, and his eyes widened as he took in the carnage from Typhoon’s brief tussle with the would-be thieves. “Oh, by the Sisters and the Stars, what happened?”
“Thieves,” Typhoon said, gesturing to the two frozen mares in her spring and the spring beside it. “Or at least they thought they were. They’re better at giving massages than stealing, it would seem.”
The purple earth pony glowered at the two frozen mares. “On behalf of Eagle Springs, you have our most sincere apologies for the inconvenience,” he said to Typhoon. “We’ll refund your money and see to it that these scoundrels are dealt with.”
“Don’t be too hard on them,” Typhoon said with a wave of her wing. “They’re kids.”
Lavender sighed. “There are too many urchins roaming Boiling Springs since the war with the spiders,” he said, shaking his head. “Sisters know what we’ll do with them all, especially when so many turn into criminals.”
“Give them the chance to work off their punishment, then,” Typhoon said. “They seemed like the kind of ponies Eagle Springs could use, and it will help get them off the streets. I was enjoying my massage and my preening. Until they tried to rob me, of course.”
After a moment, the earth pony shrugged. “I’ll see what we can do, Miss,” he said. “And once again, my most sincere apologies. We’ll get this mess cleaned up as quickly as we can. Is there anything we could do for you to right this dreadful wrong?”
Typhoon shook her head. “It’s alright. Just get me my food and drink and I’ll be satisfied.”
“Of course. I’ll make sure they get to you right away.”
He bowed and then trotted away, and Typhoon shook her head and returned to her hot spring, slowly lowering herself into the water once more. Wren still shivered in her icy cage on the left, and Juniper sheepishly smiled at the irritated patrons in the frozen spring to the right, but Typhoon ignored both of them. She had paid for three hours in the spring, after all, and she was determined to enjoy it.