//------------------------------// // 11 - Relaxation // Story: Ponies on Ponies // by Ravenmane //------------------------------// There were very few complications over the next few weeks, at least until one little incident. It all began one Thursday in early April… “Something’s wrong with the network at work Sam?” I was on the phone out in the warm sun. I had to get used to taking my calls on the porch ever since Rainbow discovered how to work the surround sound. “What’s actually connected to the network at the spa?” I noticed then that I had done something that would spell my immediate doom; Rarity heard me say ‘spa.’ It made me pause with fear. I knew what I had said, and I realized exactly who I was sharing the porch with. “No, nothing’s wrong on this end.” I tried to continue while she gave me a pleading look. “I can fit it in first thing on Monday. I’m sorry Sam, but if you want it done sooner you’ll need to find someone who will do it for free.” I paused as I was listening to Sam. “Look, I can’t shuffle everyone around just to fix a few errors in the manager’s office. I have parts coming in all day tomorrow, and Saturday’s my day to myself. I’m building a few things on Sunday or I’d come and do it then. Thank you for understanding Sam. Yes, I’ll see you Monday. Yes, I’ll call you if something frees me up before then. You work until close on Sunday right? Thanks Sam.” After I hung up, I heard it the first time. “Can you please take me to the spa with you Alex?” At the time, Rarity was only asking. “Rarity,” I replied, trying to sound as comforting as I could. “Last time one of you girls went out with me I had to spend half the day in the pet store with Fluttershy.” Fluttershy wanted to get something to feed to the animals in the yard. However, she was constantly drawn back to a large wall of small fish tanks. “But Alex, I won’t be trouble. You can work on the problems and please just let me be a little pampered for once.” I groaned and excused myself, returning to repairing a client’s computer. Whenever she asked or begged I couldn’t deny that she’d be in a better mood if I brought her with me and let her get a massage at the very least. I just couldn’t see it being an easy thing on a Monday morning. I learned my lesson very well; Ponies don’t make things easy. However, Sam owed me a favor. This led me to hatch a plan. “If I can get everything done before Sam’s shift ends on Sunday then you can come with me.” Rarity squealed at the possibility of going to the spa with me. This was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to avoid; prolonged human contact might cause problems down the line. A year ago, I did some tech work for Sam when she couldn’t afford it. In return, she owed me a favor, and I intended to collect in spades. Sam, I thought I could trust to stay quiet. It was Saturday now, my day off, and I was working harder than ever. At this rate, I think I’d deserve some time being pampered. If everything was done before Sunday was finished I’d need more than just the favor. I worked hard, but tried to pace myself as much as possible. Not all of my job was data recovery and minor repair work. Sometimes I had to do some really stupid things like build custom parts for clients, or just assemble a client’s new desktop part by part. I had the unfortunate pleasure of doing both on my weekend. I’ll spare you the details but it wasn’t as boring as much as it was time consuming. Saturday disappeared in a flash, but nearly everything was done. All that I had to make was something for Sparky, who finally took my advice and got a new computer when I couldn’t bring his back from the dead a week ago. He did pay me to try and I did give it my all, but I’m no technology God. To be fair, I had already brought it back to life twice with some mad Frankenstein technology and a hard slam on the tower. The second time I even went so far as to go “It’s alive” for him. ***** Sunday decided to hit me upside the head with a speedboat when I woke up. Either that or the jostling Rainbow Dash next to me did it. This was the second time we shuffled roommates. This time I was with Rainbow in the master bedroom. Either way I woke up with a nice bruise on my cheek and left Rainbow to whatever she was dreaming about so I could get an icepack. I was halfway across the room when I had to pull my hair out of my face. It made me pause; I liked my hair short so it didn’t get in the way. Turning to make my way to the mirror I groaned, I had to pull it back again. It wasn’t until I was in front of the mirror until I noticed the extent of everything. I stared at my reflection, pale as a sheet. “Rarity!” She was the only one I could turn to at this point. She came galloping in. “Oh my goodness, what happened to your hair darling?” “I was hoping you could tell me.” I never ever had my hair this long, it was past my shoulders and if I had to pull my bangs out of my face again it’d start to drive me nuts. It was like silk to the touch, flowing like water in my fingers. Worst of all, it was still going. “This is really weird, sorry for jumping to you for help but-” “Yes I know.” She was quick to cut be off before I could say she would be the best. “I’ll try to help you um… adjust. Yes, adjust!” She went into the room she now shared with Twilight and came back with an assortment of tools. She tried to cut it into a more manageable size but it just grew right back in. Rarity screamed as soon as all of her work was undone, waking up Rainbow. “Stubborn mane,” she growled at my hair as she practically waged war against it. “Wuzzat,” mumbled Rainbow in a half-awake daze. “Can you at least get it out of my face some Rarity?” Just as it finished escaping my mouth, she was already on it. “Oh my thoughts exactly dear,” she bit her lip as she worked. Rainbow was waking up to the very unusual sight of seeing about a foot and a half of hair fighting against Rarity and a pair of scissors. I’d imagine that this would be quite the amusing sight if it wasn’t happening to me. “Um Rare,” Rainbow said as she was trying to wake up some. “Who’s the guy with the hair?” “Not now Rainbow Dash,” she replied tersely as she was shaping around my face. She was smiling though; it wasn’t growing back in like crazy now. “And there we go. Just don’t forget to take care of it more than usual and get a nice brush.” “Thanks Rarity,” I said with a smile. “Now, could you come over here Rainbow?” I gestured for her to come to my side, not even glancing over towards the bed. “Al? Is that really you?” I saw in the mirror that Rainbow bore a far beyond confused look, but came over anyways. I turned to her so she could see the bruise on my face. “You need to flail a little less in your sleep. A little further north and that would’ve been one nasty shiner.” She immediately snapped awake after seeing the bruise. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry Al. I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to.” “You’re a little safer than Pinkie, but not by too much.” Pinkie, my previous roommate, flails a lot in her sleep and I don’t have much to absorb the blows. “Yeah, I remember what Twilight was like yesterday.” She was coated in bruises from what appeared to be Pinkie sleep galloping. “Oh yes,” interjected Rarity, “that’s why Applejack and I had to swap rooms with Pinkie and Twilight. It gave Pinkie a bunk all to herself.” “So,” Rainbow started awkwardly, “what’s with the sudden hair Al?” “No clue,” I groaned, “I don’t know who’ll be more emotional. Fluttershy’s going to be really concerned because of the bruise. Twilight’s curiosity might have her beat though since I just grew at least a foot of hair overnight.” “Yeah, that’s a tough call.” Rarity nodded. “It even grows back when it wants to grow in a specific way Rainbow. That’s the best I can do until we can put some magic to it.” I took another look at it in the mirror. “If I ditch the stubble I think it would look great just as it is. Sure, I’ll have to pull some loose strands out of my face from time to time, but I can manage.” ***** Breakfast consisted of plenty of questions about the new additions to my head. Fluttershy quickly got an icepack together for me and Twilight did seem obsessed about the addition. “That looks more like wild magic than anything else,” she theorized. “So, what do you mean by ‘wild magic’?” I still knew next to nothing about magic despite Twilight’s best attempts. “What I mean is that its sorcery that nopony actually does. It has a life of its own.” “Kinda like the Everfree Forest?” “Not exactly, more like something growing used to being in a specific kind of magic-oriented environment. It just acts ‘wild’ because it doesn’t know any better.” “You mean like how it sort of fought back against me,” Rarity asked. “Exactly, nopony could make something like that without maintaining concentration. What’s more this,” she gave my hair a tug, “showed up overnight.” “That hurts Twi,” I said as my head jerked. “I’m sorry Alex,” she blushed, “I just… I’m sorry.” “It’s okay Twi, just don’t do it in the future.” I cleared my spot, time to finish my work. ***** It was four in the afternoon when I finally finished, it took far longer than I expected to finish. At least it was done and it worked just fine. I set the piece of custom hardware aside and went outside to make my call. Rarity was already outside, eager to see me walk out with my phone. “Yeah, Sam,” I asked into my phone, Rarity closing in quickly giving me big puppy eyes. “How late are you guys open? Yeah, I can make it today. Mind if I bring someone with me? No, you owe me remember. We have a deal then? Good, see you in an hour.” “Thank you so much Alex,” Rarity squealed before tackling me. “You won’t regret it in the least.” If ever there was a statement that I prayed for truth in that was it. On one hand Rarity would be pleased, on the other hand I was out a favor. Now that I think about it, the whole thing was a win-win scenario. ***** The drive over was incident free, the first sign of a complicated pony-related instance. “You won’t have much time to be pampered Rarity,” I explained. “They’ll be closing up in about an hour after we get there.” Sundays, I hate going places on Sundays. “I see, but your friend. Will they be fine with you bringing a pony with you? You did tell them right?” “There’s a reason I’m calling in this longstanding favor Rarity. It’ll cover the visit and the fainting spell.” I grinned, trying to picture the moment so I could savor it even more. Rarity hadn’t been out of the house so looking around out the windows occupied most of her attention, as did a familiar slew of questions. Well, save for one I should’ve expected from the observant fashionista. “Why don’t you ever go out on Sundays?” “Sunday is a very peculiar day, where a lot of places are closed or they have unusual hours. For most it’s a day of staying at home or attending church.” “Oh?” “Yes Rarity, and I don’t like to go out today because nothing ever seems to play out right on Sundays. Ever have days like that?” “Yes, often when Sweetie Belle and her friends get dumped on me at the last second.” I chuckled, just imagining what they could be like on an unexpected day seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. Personally, I think I could handle one or two of them, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders were rarely ever seen in a pair; one or three being the common groupings. “How dangerous are they when it’s like that?” “It doesn’t give me time to lock everything up. Honestly, if somepony could handle them all the time then I’d love to know who they are.” “What about Cherilee?” “Oh, she gets enough of them when they’re at school. I couldn’t possibly ask her.” “But you asked-” “I know, but the fact remains.” After a brief, pause we tried to just laugh it off. It just made things more awkward, but after a few seconds, it was irrelevant as I pulled up to our destination. The building itself had seen better days, but if Sam was to be believed the staff’s only gotten better over the years. After we got out of my car I could see Sam waiting outside, and she seemed a little distraught from this distance. By the time we were up close it turned into a rush to catch her. “Come on Sam,” I said as I lightly slapped her cheek. “No passing out yet. You’re a better woman than this.” “Nng, Alex?” She still seemed a little out of it. “Did I just imagine seeing you coming up here with a white unicorn?” “Most certainly not,” Rarity objected as she glared at Sam. “I am quite real!” “Right,” I added with a grin. It was just as I expected: priceless. “Sam, I’d like you to meet Rarity. Rarity, this is my friend Samantha.” “Charmed,” said Rarity politely. “Wait, Rarity as in My Little Pony’s Rarity?” I nodded. “Mind pampering her a little while I get to work?” Sam slowly got up and out of my grip. “I think so, you should just be lucky there’s not really anyone inside so there shouldn’t be that many questions. I mean it’s just Sergei, Maddy, and me and,” she glared at me, “is this why you rushed to finish? So you could avoid doing this on a busier day?” I chose to avoid her gaze. While true, she was missing the point. “I didn’t take yesterday off like I usually do. I’m a little pleased I did too since it would’ve otherwise put me back a few days.” “Okay,” she said in a slow, skeptical tone. “So, what on earth did you do to your hair?” I turned to go inside. “There are some things Samantha that are best not to ask about. I’m going to get to work so enjoy yourself Rarity.” After I walked out of sight, Rarity looked up to Sam. “I’m sorry if this is a problem, but he’s doing a favor for me and I just feel awful putting you in a position like this.” Sam just shook her head, “no it’s okay. He just didn’t tell me anything, I feel like he just loves doing this to people.” “Oh no, he knew you wouldn’t believe him. It’s written all over his face.” She paused for a moment, “do you think he looks good with longer hair?” “A bit,” Sam replied as she started heading inside, “but how did he get that much.” Rarity followed right behind her. “It all came in last night. Twilight thinks it might be some kind of wild sort of magic that’s just affecting him. It’s a little over my head, but she must be going absolutely crazy having no way to really prove she’s right.” “Wait a second Rarity, how many ponies are here?” “Well Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie, Spike and I are staying with Alex. He has been such a wonderful host. Fluttershy and Pinkie insisted that we help around the house so we’re all doing our part.” She chuckled some, “Rainbow Dash is just staying out of everypony’s way.” “Are you serious?” “It helps more than you’d think. Two weeks ago, we had to get new plates because she broke her twelfth while cleaning up after dinner. After that incident Rainbow was taken off dish duty.” ***** Rarity sighed contently. “Thank you so much Sergei,” she looked over to her masseur. “My pleasure Miss Rarity,” Sergei replied. Rarity looked over to Sam who was getting a shoulder rub from the only other employee present. “So Sam, do you like Alex?” “He’s a good friend,” she sighed, “nothing like Rick.” “Yeah,” came my voice over the speaker system. “Sam loves my brother. How clear’s the sound out there?” “Crystal clear, was something wrong?” I cracked the door open. “Yeah, I want to kill the electrician and the last techie. It’s just a mess in here, but I’ve done my best.” I came out so see everyone so content. I really need a day off now. “Fixed the network issues I could, made some notes about others to do in the near future, and had to do a little work with the wiring.” Rarity looked over to see me then turned back to Sam. “Someone else needs some time off.” “Nah Rare,” I said dryly, “I need a soda and a few races of Mario Kart against Pinkie and Twilight. Feel any better though?” She shook her head. “Not until you get over here and let somepony take care of you.” ***** “Okay,” said Sam as Rarity and I left, “I’ll see you guys sometime soon.” “Be sure to call first Sam,” I called over my shoulder. Rarity giggled. “That wasn't a bad Sunday was it Alex?” “Nah, not at all Rarity,” I gave a stretch, “not at all.”