"Thank the Light, we're finally back." Matthias exclaimed as the Sweet Apple Acres came into their view.
Somewhere between running away from a huge cave with only a slightly smaller bear in it, and getting his nose practically sliced open by a small kitten, he lost interest in adventuring for some time.
"I wonder if Zecora finished the brew for Apple Bloom." Twilight said as the trotted closer to Apple family's home.
"Considering how long it took as to get back, I suppose she did." Shining Armor replied, suppressing a yawn.
Matthias, who was wondering about the topic as much as Twilight, knocked on the door (out of courtesy, they could see the light coming from the inside) and waited few seconds for the door to be opened by no other that a filly in question.
"Howdy!" Apple Bloom, once again as the young self, greeted them cheerfully.
"Apple Bloom, you're okay!" Twilight exclaimed, coming up to the little filly. "I'm so happy you're back to normal!"
"Thanks, Twilight. Ah must say, Ah never thought Ah would be so glad to be so youn' and all." Apple Bloom chuckled as she led them into the house. She immediately stopped as she noticed Brann. "So ya're the strange fella the others told me about?" filly asked, immediately appearing next to him. "Ya look funny."
Matthias shook his head in amusement and entered the living room.
"Hi everypony." he bowed his head to them. All ponies save Granny Smith, who, Matt assumed, was sleeping already, were present here.
"What took you guys so long?!" Rainbow asked, frowning. "It's been more than three hours already! And why are you all covered in dirt?"
"Well, we had to make a detour." Twilight answered as she and Shining Armor came in after Matthias, followed by Brann and Apple Bloom. "I will explain later."
"The most important is that you all came back safely." Princess Cadence said, while nuzzling her husband affectionately.
"So, Apple Bloom is going to be completely fine now, right?" Matthias turned to Zecora.
The zebra, who was drinking a tea, nodded.
"At least she doesn't want to rhyme." he thought, relieved, as he was not sure he was in shape to understand her.
"That's great." Brann said before anypony could. "What do ye all say we go and celebrate it? Ye do have taverns here, right?"
"Dwarves." Matthias thought, shaking his head and chuckling.
"I don't think the ladies would appreciate such form of celebration." he answered to his question. "But I guess you, me, Big Mac, and Shining Armor could go."
"Actually, that sounds perfect!" Rarity beamed up all of a sudden. As the newly arrived turned to her in confusion, she explained: "I just reserved the spa for as girls, so you boys can go do whatever you want."
"The spa is opened at this hour?" Twilight asked surprised.
"Well, no, but I managed to catch Lotus and Aloe as they were closing. Since they owed me a favor, the two of them agreed to wait few hours for us, though I suppose that it was the fact that one of the customers was going to be a princess was what swayed them over... Anyway, I think we deserve some relaxation!"
Matthias could see from Applejack and Rainbow's rolling their eyes that they weren't as keen on this idea as Rarity was.
"I don't know..." Twilight stammered. "I kinda have to write Princess Celestia a letter..."
"Oh, pish posh darling; I'm sure this can wait until tomorrow." Rarity interrupted her, waving her hoof in a dismissive motion. "Besides, you need the spa treatment the most. I mean, just look at your coat."
Glancing at Twilight now in the light, Matthias had to admit that she was really dirty, and he wasn't in much better state. He made a mental note to get a bath later.
"Fine." the lavender unicorn gave up as she too noticed the state of her coat. "But I WILL send Princess a letter real quick. Come on, Spike!"
Before anypony could react, the little dragon was grabbed a bright violet light and carried over to Twilight, and with a flash of light, they were gone.
"This is kind of important." he explained to her friends.
"Oh, well, I suppose we'll hear about it at the spa." Rarity said, brushing her mane nonchalantly. "You didn't ask about that spirit." she noticed.
"It disappears when it is no longer needed." Matt explained.
"Oh, well, in that case, everything is okay now. We'd best be going." Rarity said to the other mares.
"Can we come to?" pleaded her Sweetie Belle, making poppy eyes.
"No, sorry girls, but its past time you three went to bed." she replied sternly.
"But we're not even tired!" Scootaloo protested, but her words were proven wrong as she yawned loudly in next second.
"Off to bed with ya'll."
"I spend the entire day in bed..." Apple Bloom mumbled as her sister escorted them back into her room.
"Won't your parents and Scootaloo's be concerned that they haven't returned for the night?" Matthias asked Rarity.
"Not at all, the three of them were planning a sleepover today."
"Huh, what a coincidence." he said, shaking his head. "Anyway, ladies, I wish you good time in spa. Come on, guys, let’s go to the pub."
"Eeyup!" Big Mac voiced his approval of the idea.
As Shining Armor murmured something to his wife, Matthias noticed Zecora put her now empty teacup on the table and rise.
"It seems that everypony is leaving, so I'm off to my hut to for some sleeping."
"Are you sure, Zecora?" Rarity asked her, surprised at zebra's sudden declaration of leaving. "There is no reason why you shouldn't join us in spa."
"Of that, I am quite sure, but alas, I am dead tired from making a cure."
"Do you want me to walk you back to your hut?" Matthias offered. "There was a manticore near the forest's path."
"You're concern is appreciated, but do not let my peaceful nature make you blinded. I can be more dangerous than boas, when the need arises." Zecora replied with a smirk that made him a bit nervous.
"I... will take your word on that one. Have a safe journey."
"Yes, and once again, thanks." Applejack, who came back to the room, added.
The zebra nodded and made her way out through the door. The stallions (and one dwarf) followed suit.
"Soo... who's treating?" Matthias asked the other males as they headed out towards Ponyville.
"A round is on me for everypony!" Brann said to the bartender, placing a small bag of gold in front of him, making all the scared and suspicious glances thrown at him by other patrons disappear and then replaced by happy cheers.
The pub, named strangely 'The Prancing Pony', was the only place in Ponyville a pony could get an alcohol this time of year. Matthias visited it few times with Big Macintosh, so he was fairly familiar with it. The pub had few of its regular guests, who were currently sitting in their usual corner. Other than them though, ponies didn't visit this place so often, which spoke something about the nature of everypony in town. They usually came here only after a very tiresome day. Matthias recalled hearing that after his fight with dragons, the whole place was crowded.
Brann soon returned to the table they sit by, holding four mugs of hard cider. He gave them their beverage, and raising his, said:
"Cheers!"
"And then we came out of the forest." Twilight said, finishing the story of what happened to her, Shining Armor, Matthias, and Brann since Rainbow Dash left with the poison joke.
They were all enjoying a relaxing bath within the spa. Twilight arrived there almost at the same time as the others, after she quickly dictated a letter for Spike to write, send it to the Princess along with the rune they found and put the baby dragon to bed. She was quite embarrassed when both Lotus and Aloe lamented on the state of her coat which caused all of her friends, Cadence included, to chuckle.
After the two spa ponies finished cleaning her coat out of all the dirt, she joined her friends who asked her about that place she, two stallions, and one dwarf visited. They were all pretty scared when Twilight told them about the pony, who died trapped in a crystal-amber (Fluttershy shaken so badly that ripples formed on the surface of water), and terrified when she told them how the floor under her collapsed. They were relieved to hear that almost nothing happened to her, thanks to Matt, and that they decided to leave after her brother and Brann dug them up. Twilight then told them the short version of what the paladin told her about bringing others back to life, how they passed a sleeping Ursa Major, about Matt tackling the manticore, and the cat. They laughed when they heard what the cat did to him.
"To think that Matt was the only one wounded to the blood, and from a little kitty!" Rainbow laughed, holding her sides as if afraid she would explode out of too much laughter, and splashing water around her.
"The poor thing..." Fluttershy murmured, thinking about the cat. "How did it get lost in that dreadful forest? It must be so scared and lonely."
"Don't worry, Fluttershy." Twilight calmed her. "I'm sure Matt will agree to come and help you look for it tomorrow."
"Oh, I will come too!" Rainbow declared. "I gotta see how that kitty scratches him when it happens again!" she said as she bursted into laughter again.
"So you wrote to Princess Celestia about all of this?" Cadence asked Twilight.
"Yes, I also send her that rune we found." she replied, glad to be back on the subject of this 'Project Eclipse', and not on 'Matt got his nose cut by a kitty. "I hope she will know something about the whole thing, or at least, will be able to quickly repair the rune. That place was really weird… and scary." Twilight added with a shrug.
"Well, like I said, the most important is that you all came back safely." Cadence said as she submerged deeper into the water with closed eyes, relaxed.
"Yes, it was most certainly a good thing that Matt managed to save you just in time." Rarity exclaimed, moving a bit closer to Twilight. "That was quite brave of him, to jump after you, don't you agree?"
"Well, yes, sure." Twilight stammered, feeling a bit uncomfortable.
She didn't mention to anypony in what position she found herself once she regained consciousness, or about what almost happened between the two of them.
"It was nothing." she once again told herself. "Matt is just your friend Twilight. What you nearly did was probably caused by the limited amount of air."
"And being brave is not his only virtue." Rarity continued, as if oblivious the Twilight's discomfort. "Matt is also handsome, charming, strong, fun, courteous, and most importantly among other things, cares deeply about others, and I think especially you."
As her unicorn friend continued to exalt Matt's virtues, Twilight blushed more and more, knowing Rarity's words to be true. When she came down to the last remark, she was as red as s strawberry. She didn't think of it before if Matt treated her better than their other friends. Okay, granted, they were best friends, but that was it, right?
"You know, there are few ponies that would say you two should become special someponies."
"What?!?" Twilight screamed surprised and embarrassed as Rarity's final remark hit. "N-no, I mean, Matt is just a friend!"
"Oh come now, darling!" Rarity dismissed her denial with a flick of a hoof. "You can't tell me that there is nothing going between the two of you."
"But there isn't!" Twilight protested. Seeing the disbelieve look on Rarity's face, she turned to her other friends. "You know that, right?"
She was shocked when she saw that none of them supported her, or even looked her in the eyes. And Twilight was even more shocked, when she realized that Cadence was chuckling.
"Twilight, there is no reason why you should hide your emotions from your friends." her old foalsitter told her, much to her dismay.
"I am not hiding anything!" she once again protested, not understanding why all of them were so convinced that there was something between her and Matt. "Neither me or Matt thinks of the other that way!" as she said that, a small voice in her head asked her if that was the truth. Considering what almost happened... "Although..." Twilight murmured, uncertain. "... we did... almost... kissed..."
"YOU WHAT?!?" everypony, including Lotus and Aloe, shouted, excitement on their faces as they moved closer to her.
Twilight, not believing she actually said that, submerged slowly underwater in embarrassment.
"I hope at least Matt doesn't have to put up with anything like this..." she thought, facehoofing herself.
Meanwhile…
"... and then he said: 'I don't have a drinkin' problem! I drink, I get drunk, I fall down. No problem!'" Matthias finished and bursted into laughter, along with his three drinking companions.
"Hehe, good one!" Brann said, taking another sip of the beer. "Have ye hear' this one? 'I was standin' near the bar with some undead guy in front of me, and all of the sudden he just lets one go! Didn't even try to disguise it! I don't know what he ate but it did not agree with 'im. I said, 'What crawled up YE and died?"
Matthias laughed, and was followed by Shining Armor and Big Mac, despite the two of them not understanding how such joke could come into being.
"I still don't understand how those 'undead' things could work." the captain voiced that matter.
"It's a walkin' corpse." Brann replied with a shrug. "What's there not to understand?"
"Eeyup." Big Mac nodded, with his usual calm attitude.
"Hmm... true, I guess." Shining Armor said, taking another sip. "So, any more jokes from Azeroth?"
"Well, there is this funny song the troll likes to sing..." Matthias said, glancing at Brann with a smirk, feeling a bit tipsy from all the cider they drunk so far. He coughed and song:
I kill two dwarves in da morning, I kill two dwarves at night,
I kill two dwarves in the afternoon, and then I feel alright.
I kill two dwarves in time of peace and two in time of war,
I kill two dwarves before I kill two dwarves, and then I kill two more.
They once again bursted into laughter, with Brann laughing the loudest.
"Ah, trolls." he said after a while. "Funny race that is. For example, the male trolls often say 'I like my females dumpy and droopy with halitosis'."
"Really?" Shining Armor said, confused. "What, pray tell, do dwarves say?"
Brann could only grin.
"That we like our female like we like our beer: Stout and bitter."
"I think you and Matt should talk about it." Cadence said as the Aloe massaged her wings.
Twilight groaned in her mudbath. She just finished telling everypony the unabridged version of how the two of them were trapped under the debris, which somehow immediately made that memory even more embarrassing. Even if she overlooked the constant giggles, mainly from Rainbow and Pinkie, the worst was that it confirmed her friends in their belief that she and Matt had feelings for one another.
"For the last time," Twilight said, grinding her teeth in frustration as she forced herself to stay calm, "Matt and I are friends, nothing more. And neither I nor he wants to be anything more."
"How can you know that if you haven't talked about it?" Rarity countered.
"Because I know him!" Twilight replied, and she wished the other unicorn didn't have a mud mask on face with cucumbers on eyes, so she couldn't see the look she just gave her. "If he wanted to be more that just friends, he would have said that a long time ago, or at least when we were within that debris! We've lived in the same house for three months, for pony sake!"
"Okay then." Cadence interrupted her. "Let’s say you are right. Don't you think you should at least talk with Matt about that you nearly kissed?"
Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but as she thought about it, she realized that what her sister-in-law said was true. She should talk about it with him. As much as she believed that what almost happened was due the lack of air and near death experience, she knew that she could technically be wrong on that matter.
"I suppose you're right." Twilight sighed.
"Oh, this is going to be soo awkward."
"Come on, let’s do it!" Brann said to the rest of them as they prepared to leave, everypony a bit shaking.
"No, that's stupid." Matthias replied, wondering how much did they drink. At the reception, the cheering crowd of ponies was kind enough to count for them. "I don't want to do it."
"Yes, me neither." Shining Armor, who was in the worst shape of them all, had added. "Cadence would be mad if I did something like this."
"You know what, Brann? Scratch what I said earlier, I kinda want to do it now." Matthias said, grinning. "I will be fun to watch him getting yelled by his wife."
"You traitor!" the captain accused him, surprised at Matt's cruel intention.
"Eeyup!" Big Mac added with a chuckle.
"We hope to see you again soon!" Lotus and Aloe called after them as they were leaving.
"Oh, most certainly." Cadence said, smiling. "None of the Canterlot's spas can compete with yours."
Twilight watched as the two spa ponies beamed up after the complement. Wondering how she should start her talk with Matt, or even better, how would she managed to talk with him at all with her brother, his wife, and a dwarf from another world staying at her house, not to mention a baby dragon, who somehow kept putting the earth pony in uncomfortable situations.
She was about to ask Cadence if she could distract Shining Armor for some time when they would return to her library, when suddenly:
Ohhh, aye-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di!
"Pray tell, what was that noise?" Rarity asked, looking around.
Twilight did the same, and what she saw made her jaw drop.
Her brother, Brann, Matt and Big Mac, all of them with forelegs on the arms of those standing next to him, with ponies standing on their hindlegs, moved towards their direction. And they were singing.
Since I popped the question. Shining Armor started.
I've been very sad. Brann carried on.
My life is changing. Matt added.
My wife, she makes me mad. Big Mac ("!") finished.
Every time she's talking.
Yappity Yappity Yap.
She goes on for hours.
I love her, I'm a sap.
Ohhh, aye-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di! All of them sang
Everypony watched with wide eyes as the foursome finished what soon turned out to be just the first verse.
Oh we've been married 10 years now. this time, it was Brann who started.
I don't go out so much. then Matt carried on.
She doesn't come around me. Big Mac added.
She doesn't let me touch.Shining Armor finished.
All my friends they hate me.
They don't let me play.
I'm by myself all day.
Ha, but my wife isn't that way!
Ohhh, aye-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di!
I need a change in my life. Matt started.
I think I'll leave her now.
I'll pack me bags and get skipping.
I'll trade her for a cow.
Maybe I'll go overseas.
Maybe to the griffon's land.
I'll meet myself a griffon girl.
And marry my right hand. Brann sputtered.
Ohhh, aye-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di!
Oh, but I love her. Big Mac picked up.
I love her just the same. Shining Armor added
I love her to death ye see.
I am really game.
And when she loves me.
We'll never ever part.
I'll probably die with her.
And then we both will fart.
Ohhh, aye-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di-dee-di!
As the four males finally finished, they bursted into laughter as they stopped before the mares, and where soon accompanied by Pinkie, Rainbow and Applejack, who joined in with the laughter. While the others merely chuckled.
"My my, Shining, I haven't see you this drunk." Cadence stated in a good-humored voice.
Twilight silently admitted that she was right, and, glancing at Matt, she noticed he was not so much better.
"Guess the talk will have to wait until tomorrow." she thought, relieved and annoyed at the same time.
"Took you long enough." the leader rasped.
The same shadow that was observing ponies within Sweet Apple Acers nodded to him, as well as to the four other figures, all similarly hidden.
"The protections spells around that mare's house were more complicated that I imagined." the one that was send explained, his voice echoing across the forgotten caves. "It took me a whole month to figure out how to break them all, and even after that, I still needed to distract them all long enough for me to break them and cover my track without her noticing."
"Excellent." their leader murmured. "Phase Two of the Eclipsed Eye Plan is complete. Now, before we will begin Phase Three, I will have to study this carefully. We cannot allow ourselves to make any mistakes now." he added as he gazed at what his underling brought him.
'The psychological art of mind magic'.