//------------------------------//
// Chapter Six: The Spy Maids going into the Spa 
// Story: Maids of Honor 
// by Foal Star 
//------------------------------//

Sea Star was looking somewhat worried as she was sitting down on a bench waiting in the spa alongside Mop Head in the massage parlor and spa known as "The Bathhouse of the Goddesses," which they previously went to a few weeks ago, was still rather beautiful with the ornate statues of the princesses along with a cute looking pegasus mare working the front desk. The two maids were both undressed, and they were both feeling rather exposed, not being in her uniform. The yellow-coated earth pony herself was not comfortable in a mare's body and wished she could turn back into a royal guard. But for now she'll focus on the spa treatment she slowly looked over at her friend and asked, "so…um…what am I to expect with this?"

Mop Head laid out her hooves and stretched her limbs, and said, "Just relax; there's nothing to worry about, and even when you turn back into a stallion, you should definitely do this more often,"

The mare's eyes lit up as she quickly added, "though I suggest not a place where they brainwash you."

Sea Star couldn't help but snicker behind a hoof at the joke; she added, "well, that being said, I'll definitely try spas more when I'm back to normal…"

"Right," Mop Head giggled under her breath. 

The yellow-coated earth pony looked somewhat nervous as she crossed her forelegs and looked downward. The mare seemed to be in a trance, she never had a massage before, let alone a full-on spa treatment. This was definitely something that was out of her comfort zone, but at the same time, the mare was rather curious about getting one as well. 

The earth pony threw her mane back and sighed, "yeah, so we just sit here and wait?"

"Yes, until our spa bath is ready," Mop Head responded with a smirk on her face. Sea Star looked away with a painful expression resonating on her face.

"Hey, are you ok?" The head maid asked as she scratched her mane. 

Sea Star gazed upwards with a smile and said, "yes, I'm fine; I'm just trying to go through being a mare which is like being in a prison, ya know? I am ok with being a maid to help Princess Celestia. But, I feel uncomfortable with ponies touching my body and stuff like that."

The yellow-coated mare lowered her head, seeming to be ashamed for saying all of this out loud. "Look, Sea Star, you don't have to go through with this, ok? You can go back and get the princess to change you back into a stallion. The last thing I want is to make you feel uncomfortable."

"Right, I understand," the mare sighed as she brushed her hoof over her mane. "It's fine. I wouldn't want Princess Celestia to continue being a puppet to whoever is doing this to her. But yes, I want to turn back into a stallion."

"Ok, you will, and I will make sure that happens," Mop Head added as she hugged her friend. Sea Star was somewhat surprised at the sudden embrace and wasn't sure at first. She started to squirm and make noises, but she stopped seeming to begin loving the feel of the fellow mare's embrace they held each other.

"Aww, you look so cute together," Somepony said out loud as the two mares looked across the lobby standing there was a gorgeous pegasus was now standing in front of her with piercing blue eyes, a lovely soft light blue and sea green striped mane that fell around her head like a waterfall; which matched perfectly with her snow-white coat, which was partly covered by the toga draped over her body. The goddess known as Aqua slowly trotted over and replied relatively smoothly, "hello, Mop Head; glad you decided to return?"

"Yes, me as well. I can't wait for another massage," the head maid said with a smile on her face. 

"That's nice to hear," the mysterious pegasus said as she turned her attention towards Sea Star, who looked downward with her cheeks flushing red. She continued trot towards her, and with a smirk, she asked, "so, how are you?"

"I'm fine," the unicorn sighed, "I've just been busy the past few days now that I'm princess Celestia's personal assistant."

"Right, I bet that is rather taxing," the mare added as she went to ask what they wanted, "now, I presume you want to manicure your hooves and horn?"

"Yes, please," Mop Head chimed as she clopped her hooves on the ground. 

Aqua then turned her attention to Sea Star and asked, "for you? Do you want a hooficure and a back massage?"

There was a long awkard pause before the mare pointed a hoof at her self."Oh, you talking to me?" 

The pegasus seemed to snicker behind a hoof and said, "yes, I'm talking to you."

When Sea Star realized she was being talked to and quickly stammered, "Oh uh…yeah, a hooficure and a back massage sounds nice."

The mare threw a hoof over her and asked, "ok, you two come along with me."

The two maids gave each other worried looks and then continued their way toward the spa baths. The pegasus then laid the others down on the table where she laid them down, and she went to work massaging their bodies. The mare then went about and rubbed some oil over her hooves and went to work massaging their bodies. Sea Star was in heaven as she had her body being worked on. The mare kicked and moaned in ecstasy as she felt her aching muscles relaxing and all that tension seeming to flow out from her body. Years of martial training and hard work seemed to fall off her shoulders as she was being worked on. Sea Star was flipped on her back, and she squeaked as Aqua went to work on the mare's hooves, going about with a hoof file and rubbing it along each of her hooves and grounding out the rough edges. The grinding of her hooves made her squeak as she felt the file grinding away at the ends of her legs, feeling them tingle. Luckily the mare wasn't too rough, only going about a gentle grind with the file as Sea Star laid there, loving every second of the procedure. The mare then went to pour oil on them and started to polish them up with a small rag until they gleamed in the sunlight. Sea Star was in complete bliss throughout the treatment as she laid her head back and sighed, seeing that despite her misgivings being a mare, she was sure enjoying this lovely spa date.







As the two other mares were getting massaged, Amber and Silky lay down relaxing in one of the back rooms; they were wrapped up in white towels, and with green mud masks rubbed all over their faces. The two looked relaxed with their manes all done up, and they seemed rather happy with smiles on their faces. They peeked through one of her cucumbers that was laid on top of one of her eyes and looked around the room. The pegasus maid peered around the room and whispered, "Hey, looks like nothing is going on here?"

"Ok! The other mares chimed they then slowly got up from the benches and made their way across the long white-tiled room. They continued their trot through the bright lights as they headed for the door. There they opened it and continued on their way through the building, scurrying about the halls and opening and closing doors. Amber was getting rather pissed as they passed another room. They eventually came upon two giant golden doors and then pushed them open. Inside was a vast pond with a waterfall flowing down over everything; it was like an indoor garden with flowers and willow trees everywhere. The room was rather beautiful, and Silky slowly trotted in with this look of awe on her face. In the middle of the pond standing above the water, was a statue of Princess Celestia. There she was surrounded by candles and on the pedestal was a book. The two mares slowly trotted over the water. They came upon an old-looking spell book, and Amber read the passage about spells they were using to control princess Celestia. She then read how they used a spell to use the statue like a voodoo doll controlling the princess alicorn's actions. 

"My Faust!" is what is controlling Princess Celestia into turning so many of her guards into maids!"

"Yes, it has to be!" Silky cried out. "It's written right here plain as day!"

"Hey, who's in there!?"

Upon hearing somepony shouted the two mares gasped in fright; they scurried behind the statue and climbed up on her back, seeing she was standing on her back legs, so the princess's belly and chest, along with her wing span, hid their presence. As the two mares stayed silent, they heard Aqua stomping through the water, hearing loud splashing noises as the pegasus came closer. The two alicorns looked down at the reflections below seeing Aqua standing by, looking rather angry as she looked around the place, trying to find the intruders. 

The mare looked around the place and tried to find the alicorn, then she glared at it angrily. "Seriously!? What was that!?" 

One of the other pegasi flew in and asked, "Is anything wrong, Queen Aqua?"

Aqua looked around the entire enclosure, trying to figure out where the intruders were. Still, the two mares were as quiet as possible, and it looked like nopony was around. 

"I thought I heard something," the mare grumbled. 

Aqua adjusted her toga, then turned her attention towards her underling and said, "do we have other ponies working on those pesky maids?"

"Yes, your honor, we do! They are being taken care of as we speak."

"Good, keep them busy," Aqua snickered as she slowly trotted towards the statue and glared at it. "Ok, let's do this."

She cleared her throat and began to sing a song as the maids stood behind the statue. The music drifted over them, and it was rather trance-like as it made them pause and listen to the sound that drifted from the pegasus's voice. As she started to wobble dance and forth, the statue began to move as well; it went from a cold stone to a hot flesh and blood body. The two mares clung to the back of the statue, and as weird as it was hiding behind the princess statue coming to life, they stayed still and tried to be as silent as possible. The princess statue then stopped, and two maids paused in their tracks and stood relatively still as Aqua cleared her throat and said, "now, princess, what are you up to?"

The water started to ripple as a reflection with her standing by with two white-coated pegasus guards standing at attention. It looked like they were watching what Princess Celestia saw, seeing them in first-person view. The two guards were deeply asleep, and Aqua got rather appalled by their behavior as she said, "these two boneheads are sleeping on the job, seriously!? Come on, princess, they are sworn to protect you, and they can't stay awake while on duty!?"

"Yes, I agree these two clearly don't care about protecting me or my sister at all," the statue growled.

"Well, maybe it's time to teach these two a lesson, hmmm?" Aqua snickered under her breath with a smirk growing on her face. The princess lit her horn and her horn as the maids watched in horror as the stallions were turned into maids, with their male bodies becoming like those of mares, their sets of armor turning into maid uniforms, and their spears slowly transforming into brooms. The two maids wished they could fly to Canterlot Palace and stop this right now, but Amber placed a hoof on Silky's shoulder seeing there was nothing they could do here. They just watched the former stallions stand there sleeping soundly as the princess went about her business. 

"See, we're making progress soon, every royal guard will be a maid, and the castle will be left totally defenseless."

"Yes, but won't they still be around…."

Aqua just threw her hooves in the air and scoffed, "Oh please, they're just a bunch of maids? What's the worst they can do? When I rule, they'll be my servants, but for now, I'll concentrate my power on controlling Princess Celestia. Once she's mine, I'll take over Equestria."

As soon as Aqua left and they no longer heard her hoofsteps the statue slowly turned back into hard cold stone and the image below faded away. The other maids waited until she was gone before running out of the room as fast as they could. They ran down towards the spa throwing off their towels and sliding into a hot tub. Just then, the mysterious white-coated pegasus walked into the room, and there she looked down at them and scratched her head. "Where were you? I thought you were just getting facials?"

Silky started to stammer and shake with sweat coming down her forehead while Amber cleared her throat and simply said, "we were here the whole time. After our facials, we got up to stretch our legs and decided to take a dip in one of your lovely hot baths."

Silky started nodding her head relatively fast as she chirped, "yes, that is true!"

Aqua eyed them as she seemed unsure if what they said were true, but it was apparent she didn't seem to care, shrugging her shoulders. "Ok, just don't go running off without an escort. I don't want you two getting lost."

"Ok," the two mares chimed as they went back to relaxing in the hot tub with the bubbles around them and giving off deep, relaxing sighs seeing they just dodged a bullet. Silky was clearly agitated as she whispered, "did that all just really happen?"

"Yeah, just relax and don't worry about that now; just relax, ok?" Amber whispered back with agitation in her voice. The pegasus then laid down into the hot bubbly suds and stretched out her wings showing off her massive wingspan. The maid then laid her head back and gave a long deep sigh trying to take in everything she saw and read. The statue of Celestia? The reflection of her changing more guards into maids? They now have evidence of what was happening, but they couldn't trust Princess Celestia. Faust knows how much influence Aqua has on her now, and she could only hope they can save her before it's too late. 








The maids were now just sitting around a table outside a small cafe. All four mares were slowly drinking their cups of coffee, and they seemed to be relaxing as they were making small chat. They all looked much better with their hooves and horns polished, Amber's wings preened, their faces looking smoother, and they just looked relatively relaxed from the hot baths they took. But eventually, the chat died as the mares just looked downward-looking rather worried as Amber explained what she and Silky saw, there was a long pause of awkward silence. The red-headed pegasus then took a sip from her cup and asked what everypony was thinking. "So…what do we do now?"

The head maid sipped her coffee and said, "We only have one option." She splashed her coffee on Amber's uniform as Sea Star splashed some muddy puddle onto Silky and Amber's uniforms. The mares cried out in shock seeing their uniforms were now all tarnished and torn as the maids were in shock. 

"Hey, what gives!" Silky cried out at what had just happened. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry I thought I saw a wasp!" The unicorn mare cried as she got up from her chair, came over, brushed off the mud from their uniforms, and wiped the coffee from their faces. Amber was going to curse Mop Head out, but then the head maid continued, "oh I'm so sorry your uniforms are all dirty and ruined." 

She then helped her fellow maids up and brushed the mud off them, and they saw their uniforms were now ruined with mud and coffee staining the clothing. Mop Head lifted the dresses and aprons off their bodies and added, "well, I believe that it's time to go to Rarity's Boutique to get some new ones, maybe even meet up with Twilight; she could give some tips on caring for Princess Celestia." 

Amber blinked, somewhat confused as she was still angry but curious as to what Mop Head was implying. "What are yo-" But then she slowly started to understand what the head maid was trying to say. The pegasus grabbed Silky by the hoof, and they trotted off through the crowds as they headed right to the train station. Silky was rather surprised as she shouted, "Wait, where are we going!?"

"We're heading to Ponyville," Amber whispered as she continued to lead her friend along by the hoof. 

Silky blinked, completely confused, and asked, "But why!?"

"I'll explain later," the mare chimed as they continued onward onto the train with Silky following right behind her. Amber knew Mop Head implied they needed to get the information to Twilight and understand what they were dealing with. They needed to figure out what Aqua is. Then maybe come up with a plan to take her down and save Princess Celestia. As much as Amber hated admitting it they had no idea what they were dealing with. They're going to need Twilight and her friends to help stop the solar monarch from turning all her royal guards into maids!