“I want to thank you again for showing me around the zoo,” Fluttershy said as she and Natural Harmony returned to her hotel. “After what happened this morning, I really needed something like that to help me calm down.”
“Honestly, Fluttershy, the advice you gave me about changing around the manticore habitat is thanks enough. Anything that keeps them from getting too aggressive is a major load off my mind. With all that said, are you sure you’re going to want to stay here after what happened? I mean, there’s a difference between not beating yourself up over it and wanting to sleep in the room where it happened.” Fluttershy blanched a bit at the thought, though she quickly recovered. “Well, if you think it’ll be too much for you, you can always stay over at my place. It’ll be a little cramped, but it beats having anxiety attacks or something.” Before Fluttershy could respond, a well-dressed stallion came rushing up to them from across the lobby.
“Pardon me, but if I’m not mistaken, you are the guest staying in room 312, correct? I’m Luxury Lodging, the manager here, and on behalf of the hotel I’d like to offer our sincerest apologies regarding the recent unpleasantness you’ve encountered. As a way of making it up to you, we’d like to offer to move you to our Princess Suite for the remainder of your stay. In addition, we would like to offer you a special invitation for a complimentary deluxe treatment at the Gentle Seasons Spa. It’s an exclusive establishment located just outside of the city. If you would like, I can arrange for a carriage to take you there.”
“Oh my goodness, that’s so generous of you,” Fluttershy said as Luxury Lodging presented her with an envelope containing a certificate along with an invitation letter describing the spa. “Although…Natural Harmony, you wouldn’t mind if I—”
“For Celestia’s sake, Fluttershy, just accept the luxury spa offer, already!” Natural Harmony said. “You deserve a bit of pampering, and besides, I’m going to be stuck working on zoo business tomorrow, anyway, so it’s not like you’d be ditching me or anything. And its not going to be the fun kind of zoo business, just a staff meeting about budgets and personnel, so you’re not going to be missing anything, either.”
“Well…alright then. I’ll head up there first thing tomorrow morning,” Fluttershy said happily.
“Splendid. I’ll see to it that all the necessary arrangements are made. In the meantime, I’ll have somepony sent up to help you move your things to your new accommodations.” Fluttershy thanked Luxury Lodging once more before happily trotting off towards the stairway, not even noticing that the invitation that had gone along with her certificate had fallen out of its envelope. One pony did notice, however, quickly moving by and snatching up the invitation without even breaking stride.
“Hmmm, looks like an old Fleming cipher, whoever wrote it must have wanted to make sure La Mariposa would be able to read what its saying,” Northern Spy muttered to himself as he quickly read through the encoded document. “It would appear Convoluted Plan wants to set up a meeting at the spa. Either he wants to try just buying the sample off La Mariposa, or he’s planning on taking it. In either case, I can’t let that meeting occur.”
*********
“Oh my, this place looks wonderful,” Fluttershy marveled as she stepped out of her carriage onto the grounds of the Gentle Seasons Spa. During her long friendship with Rarity, Fluttershy had been to all manner of spas, but Gentle Seasons was clearly in a class of its own. Gentle Seasons wasn’t so much a spa as it was a resort compound dotted with buildings that purported to offer an assortment of treatments to relax and pamper a pony in almost every manner imaginable, all the while offering an impressive view of the surrounding countryside.
Eager to get her day of pampering started, Fluttershy quickly made her way to the Spa’s main building, a brilliant white structure with a vaguely Marediterranean design. Inside, a pale-lavender earth pony mare sat behind a desk, straightening herself up as soon as Fluttershy entered.
“Greetings, and welcome to the Gentle Seasons Spa. How may I help you begin your wellness journey?”
“Oh, well, I have this certificate for a deluxe spa day,” Fluttershy began as she fished the certificate our of her saddlebags and handed it to the clerk. “I was hoping I could start with a massage, if that’s alright.” The clerk stared at the certificate for a few moments in apparent confusion before something seemed to click in her mind.
“Oh, of course, you must be the VIP from the hotel we were told to expect. Well, we’ll make certain that your experience today is one that you won’t soon forget. Now, for your massage, might I recommend one of our special aromatherapy massages? It combines a relaxing deep tissue massage with special essential oils to maximize the therapeutic effect.”
“Oh, that sounds just lovely!” Fluttershy exclaimed happily.
“Excellent. If you make your way down to building C, room six, I’ll send a message ahead to let the masseuse know to expect you.” After providing a brief set of directions, the clerk watched Fluttershy happily trot out of the lobby. Once Fluttershy had disappeared from view, the clerk ducked down and pulled out a small, glowing crystal. “Alright, Moonflower, the mare you told me about is headed your way right now for a ‘massage’. Just remember, you promised me a ten percent cut if I sent her over to you first.”
*********
Moonflower carefully levitated the vial of thick, crimson liquid into the oi diffuser, taking special pains to avoid any chance of touching the liquid directly. While the mask she wore (hidden behind a veil she wore as part of a Saddle Arabian-esque costume) protected her from the fumes released by the diffuser, the oil was quite potent if absorbed through the skin as well. A few errant drops would be all it took to render a pony unconscious for hours, a fact Moonflower had taken advantage of several times in the past. The diffuser would take a bit longer, but the onset would be subtle enough that even ponies trained to recognize when they’d been drugged could easily miss the creeping drowsiness until it was too late.
Meme moments after Moonflower stashed away the empty vial, the door to her appropriated room opened and a yellow pegasi mare trotted in. “Hello there, I’m here for the special aromatherapy massage.”
“Ah, yes, please come in,” Moonflower said in a practiced, slightly sultry tone. “If you could leave your saddlebags by the door and come up on the table, I will get everything ready for you.” As Fluttershy obediently climbed onto the massage table, Moonflower began lighting candles under the room’s various diffusers in a somewhat theatrical fashion, trying to keep Fluttershy’s attention from lingering on the diffuser she had spiked with her drug. “There now, take a few deep breaths and allow the fragrances to work their magic. Let the scents wash over and through you and carry away all the stress you’re holding. Just close your eyes…and relax.”
Fluttershy indeed closed her eyes as the scented vapors let off by the various diffusers engulfed her senses. But, just as her body started to relax, Fluttershy’s nose picked up one scent in particular that caused her eyes to immediately snap open in alarm. “Oh no! Is that—"
*********
“Sandalwood? You can’t get Fluttershy a sandalwood scented candle!” Rainbow Dash yelled in alarm.
“Whyever not?” Rarity asked as she held the candle in her magical aura. “Admittedly, Fluttershy does seem to usually prefer floral scents, but sandalwood is a perfectly nice scent as well, and its good to mix things up a bit from time to time.”
“You mean you don’t know? Alright, I’ll tell you, but you didn’t hear any of this from me, alright?” As an increasingly confused Rarity nodded her head, Rainbow Dash moved in closer and brought her voice down to a conspiratorial whisper. “Okay, it happened back when Fluttershy was still living with her parents back in Cloudsdale. One day, Fluttershy realized that Zephyr had ‘borrowed’…actually, I forget what it was exactly, but that’s not really the important part. The thing is, Zephyr helped himself to something of Fluttershy’s, and when she busted into his room to confront him, she walked in on him…well…while he was unsheathed.” Rainbow Dash shuddered at the thought.
“Oh dear Celestia,” Rarity yelped, retching a little as she did so. “But, as traumatically unpleasant as that is, or was, I still don’t quite see what any of it has to do with Fluttershy not approving of the smell of sandalwood.”
“Well, the thing is, Zephyr was really into incense back then, so his room completely reeked—”
“Of sandalwood,” Rarity said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “What a horrid image to associate a smell with.”
“Tell me about it. Any time Fluttershy gets a good whiff of the stuff, she goes nuts and starts retching like crazy.”
*********
Fluttershy leapt up from the massage table in a blind panic, sending a startled Moonflower stumbling backwards into the collection of candles and diffusers she had set up. As Moonflower came crashing to the ground amid an assortment of candleholders and bowls of scented oil, she could only watch as her target grabbed her saddlebags and dashed out of the room at top speed.
“What? How did she know what was going on? There’s no way she could have recognized she was being drugged that quickly, it wouldn’t have even had time to take effect yet. The only other explanation would be she picked out the smell, but with all the aromatherapy garbage in here that shouldn’t be possible! Who in Celestia’s name is that mare?” Moonflower tried to stand back up so she could chase after her quarry and salvage at least some of the fiasco, but her legs refused to cooperate. As Moonflower’s legs crumpled underneath her, she finally noticed the numbing chill slowing creeping up them. “No…the drug in the diffuser…it must have splashed on me when I fell over…ngh.” Moonflower grunted before finally passing out and collapsing to the floor. As she did so, her body knocked over one final candle, which rolled over towards some of the curtains Moonflower had hung to give the room an extra bit of ambiance. The rather flammable curtains…
*********
“One of these days I need to ask Twilight if she knows a spell that can permanently get rid of a memory, or at least blur out parts of it,” Fluttershy said with a shudder as she mentally beat the emotionally scarring image back into the depts of her subconscious. “Though, that might be more of a Starlight-type spell. Anyway, I think I need to find some other way to relax, I don’t think aromatherapy is going to work for me.” Pondering her next option, Fluttershy consulted a pamphlet she had picked up in the lobby which provided a list of the various services offered at the spa, along with a helpful made of the facility. “Maybe I should try a nice steam bath, I always feel relaxed after I go to the one at the Ponyville Day Spa. Plus, it looks like the building with the steam rooms is nearby.” Her course of action decided upon, Fluttershy quickly began making her way towards the building that housed the spa’s steam baths, blissfully unaware of the pony shadowing her.
“Yeah, she just bolted out of the massage building, that idiot Moonflower must have laid it on too thick with her exotic masseuse act and tipped her off. Anyway, it looks like she’s headed straight for the bath complex, so be ready for her. And don’t take any chances, either. She may not look tough, but that mare still managed to take out Hired Muscle somehow.”
It didn’t take Fluttershy long to reach the area of the Gentle Seasons Spa dedicated to baths, be they water, steam, or even more exotic substances. Unlike the lobby, this building lacked a proper clerk, but a series of signs clearly directed Fluttershy towards the steam room area. As befitting a spa complex the size of Gentle Seasons, the steam bath area sported at least a dozen individual steam rooms, compared to the single room of Ponyville Day spa. What the Ponyville spa and Gentle Seasons seemed to have in common, however, was their steam room’s popularity, as nearly every room’s door was shut and indicated that it was occupied. In fact, there seemed to be only a single room left available, one all the way at the far end of the hallway.
“Is she coming or what?” Cheap Shot whispered as he and his partner pressed themselves against the steam room walls on either side of the door.
“Quiet,” Sneak Attack hissed through gritted teeth. Concerns about being overheard prevented Sneak Attack from reminding his partner that they had already made it look like all the other rooms were occupied, ensuring that their target would come to this one. They had even chased away the spa janitor to ensure that there would be no potential interruptions. All they had to do was keep quiet to avoid alerting their quarry until she stepped into their trap.
As it turned out, however, there was still one factor that they hadn’t planned for.
“Why, hello there,” Fluttershy said as a flash of movement near the janitorial cart caught her eye. Crouching down, Fluttershy found a small newt hiding underneath the cart. “Don’t worry, little friend, I’m not going to hurt you,” Fluttershy said as she held still and allowed the newt to calm itself a little. “Let me guess, you wandered in here because it was nice and warm and humid, but now you’re hungry and can’t find your way back out, is that it? Well, I can help you get outside, if you like.” The newt responded by cautiously climbing out from under the janitorial cart to Fluttershy’s hoof, at which point Fluttershy transferred the small amphibian onto her head for safe transport. “I can take a steam bath later, helping a critter in need is much more important,” Fluttershy said to herself as she turned to exit the steam bath area the way she came. As she turned, however, Fluttershy accidently bumped into the cart, causing it to roll over into the controls for the steam room Sneak Attack and Cheap Shot were hiding in. At the same time, a mop balance next to the cart fell over, landing onto the handle of the steam room door and wedging the end of its handle on a nearby pipe, effectively barring the door shut.
“Hey, is it just me or is it starting to get hot in here?” Cheap Shot whispered as beads of sweat began rolling down his face.
“Would you be quiet?” Sneak Attack hissed angrily. “She’ll hear you.”
“Are you sure she’s even coming? She should have been here by now, shouldn’t she?” Cheap Shot asked. As Cheap shout’s question sunk in, Sneak Attack snarled under his breath.
“She must have heard you yammering and run off. Come on, we’ll have to go after her and do this the hard way.” As Sneak Attack spoke, he attempted to open the door to leave, only to find that it seemed to be stuck. “What the – this door will barely budge!”
“Come on, Sneak, if we’re going then hurry up and open the door already. I’m sweating like crazy in here.”
“I’m trying, but something’s holding the door shut!” Sneak Attack growled as he continued his assault on the door. The exertion quickly drained him, however, and he was soon left panting as he wiped the sweat pouring form his brow. “Why the hay is it so hot in here? I feel like I’m in the jungle or something.”
“I dunno, I mean, it is a steam room, right?”
“I know that, idiot, but it’s not like we had…the steam running…” Sneak Attack looked up to the vents in the room’s ceiling, which were disgorging clouds of hot steam into the room. “She didn’t just turn around,” Sneak Attack said, as much to himself as anypony else.
“Huh? What’re you talking about?”
“Our target, she didn’t just turn around and leave. She barred the door somehow so we can’t get out and set the steam to run at full blast!” As the full seriousness of the situation slowly sank in, both stallions began frantically pounding at the door in an effort to escape while shouting for help. Unfortunately for them, their previous efforts to ensure nopony would interfere with their attack now meant that there was nopony to hear their cries for help. Worse still, another crisis was already underway at the spa that would ensure nopony would be available to help them any time soon.
*********
Northern Spy frowned as he arrived at the entrance of the Gentle Springs Spa complex. Arranging a way to reach the spa had taken much longer than he had expected, meaning he had lost track of La Mariposa.
“And finding a single pony in a complex this size is going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Norther Spy thought to himself. At that moment, however, fire alarms began ringing out, shattering the peaceful atmosphere of the spa. “Grandfather always did say the fastest way to find a needle in a haystack was to burn down the haystack. So, let’s see what turns up if we sift through the metaphorical ashes.” As ponies began pouring out of the spa buildings, many clearly having been interrupted in some treatment or other, Northern Spy scanned the crowds for any tell tale signs of those who had been expecting trouble. Sure enough, amid the sea of confused faces there were quite a few, among both guests and staff, who seemed concerned by the fire but not especially surprised. After a moment, Northern Spy picked out one face in particular that he recognized, an earth pony stallion who was helpfully trying to sneak away from the crowds towards the back of a nearby building. Northern Spy calmly wound his way through the crowds following his new target, until he finally caught up to him near some dumpsters.
“Well well well, working at a spa now, Lickspittle? That certainly seems a step up from…who was it that you were working for last time we met? Doctor World Conquest, if I’m not mistaken,” Northern Spy said in a cheerful tone as he slammed a hoof into the wall next to the quaking stallion’s head. “And, it’s the funniest thing, but I’ve noticed a quite a number of other familiar faces since I arrived here, and none of them seem interested in me for a change.” As Northern Spy continued, the friendliness left his tone as he brought his voice down to a harsh whisper. “So, why don’t you be a good little colt and tell me what Convoluted Plan has you all doing here.”
“I-I don’t know what you’re…” Lickspittle started to whimper before quickly withering under Northern Spy’s gaze. “Alright, he – I mean, we’re – there’s this mare. He wants us, or, somepony, to, you know, deal with her. I don’t know the specifics, but he put a huge price on her head.”
“There now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Northern Spy said as he gave Lickspittle a pat on the head, while simultaneously activating his stun watch to render the unfortunate stallion unconscious. “There, it would probably be for the best if you stayed put for the time being. And as for Miss La Mariposa, if that fire alarm is any indication, then it would seem Convoluted Plan’s minions are completely out of their depth. Not really all that surprising, given how easily she dealt with the last two he sent after her. Still, I need to find her and bring her in before things get any more out of hoof.”
*********
“Oh dear, I hope this isn’t something serious,” Fluttershy said as she tried to keep from getting pulled into the milling crowds. It was just her luck that the moment she got the wayward newt someplace safe that the spa’s fire alarm went off. “Maybe I should just call it a day. I don’t know that I’m going to be able to relax at all at this point, and spa days are never quite as nice without a friend. I could just go back to the hotel…or a park! I could find a nice park and do some reading with the local critters! Now, if I can just find a taxi to take me back to the city before anything else happens.” Unfortunately, a quick scan of the front of the spa revealed that most of the carts there were already mobbed by spa patrons seeking to escape the chaos. There were, however, several carriages lined up further away, so Fluttershy made a beeline towards one of them before they could be claimed as well.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Fluttershy, the two stallions harnessed to the carriage were engrossed in conversation.
“Yeah, see, this whole mess is why I just signed up to pull one of these getaway carriages. No risking my life against some mercenary super spy, just stand around and collect a nice fat paycheck when the job’s done.”
“I dunno, mate, I wouldn’t call this a fat paycheck, not compared to what they’re payin’ the lucky stiff who drops the target.”
“Maybe so, but the thing is, they actually have to drop the target first, and not get taken out in the process. This ain’t some little harmless filly we’re talkin’ about, she took out Strong Armer and Hired Muscle. And, between you and me, I heard they didn’t go nice and neat, either.”
“I heard about Strong Armer, but I thought Hired Muscle just went missin’?”
“Come on, colt, use yer head. A stallion like Hired Muscle, vanishin’ without a word and no trace of him anyplace? Mark my words, that one’s deader than a breezie in Tartarus. Anyway, I’m sure as hay not gonna try tanglin’ with a pony who could pull that off, no matter how many bits Convoluted wants to toss at me.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Heh, it’d still be nice to get that reward, though.”
“Okay, I’ll grant you that that’d be a nice pile of bits to have. But, the only way ponies like us would ever get our hooves on it would be if the mare walked up to us and got in our carriage on her own, and the odds of somethin’ like that happenin’—”
“Excuse me, I hate to be a bother, but is this carriage available?” Both stallions turned to stare dumbstruck at the sight of Fluttershy standing next to them. “I was really hoping I could get a ride to a park, if that wouldn’t be any trouble.”
“Uh…sure?” one of the stallions said, causing Fluttershy’s face to light up.
“Really, you can? Oh, that’s wonderful!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she climbed into the carriage. “I don’t suppose you know of any particularly good parks in the city, preferably one with plenty of critters? I’m not really familiar with Trottingham.”
The two stallions looked at each other as they tried to decide if this was some kind of trick before simply shrugging. “Don’t worry, miss. We’ll get you to exactly where you need to go.”