//------------------------------//
// 76. Cleansing of body and soul 
// Story: Rebirth of the Damned 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

	Matthias took in the sight of Twilight’s house, feeling... as if he was at home. Even if he lived here only for barely more than three months, the library, and, more important, it’s owner, became an important part of his heart.
“Home is where your heart is.” he thought to himself, amused.
Absentmindedly, his hoof reached to his scarred chest, as if to make sure that last few months weren’t a dream. That it wasn’t just some hallucination, caused by his enemies, many of whom he would’ve hugged and thanked to no end now. But no, his heart was back, as it’s slightly increased at the sight of library beating proved.
Returning to reality, Matthias trot closer to the door. He could see that the lights were turned off inside, which did not surprise him. It’s really late after all, and even if everypony wanted to celebrate Twilight passing the test, parties couldn’t go on forever, not after stopping an evil force from taking over an empire. They were bound to be tired - aside from Pinkie Pie, of course - and go to sleep.
Personally, he couldn’t think of anything more pleasant than that. It was a long, exhausting day for him. Now that he did his duty to the country that he became part of, and spend some time with his goddaughter, he wanted to take a good night’s rest. So when Matthias carefully twisted the knob on the door and entered the library, his first steps (quiet so he wouldn’t wake up Twilight and Spike) were directed towards the bedroom, but midway there he stopped himself.
Sure, nice long sleep was pleasant, but after the ordeal he went through with that possessed pony, Matthias decided to treat himself to something even better. So he turned, and walked into the bathroom, planning to take a long, warm bubble bath.
 
Luna walked into Celestia’s chambers, with Philomena on her shoulder. She left one of her maids looking after sleeping Moonlight, and came to return her sister’s pet and talk about few matters.
“Tia?” she asked, not seeing the older alicorn, which was strange, considering that she should have finished all her duties by now.
“In here.” a reply came from bathroom’s concealed door, dispersing all of Luna’s thoughts about some emergency that happened. “Come in.”
The door at the side of the wall appeared, and the Princess of the Night trotted through them, entering purple colored room, illuminated by few aroma candles. Celestia was sitting in a large boat-like shaped bathtub, filled with bubbles. Luna felt Philomena leave her shoulder and land next to her owners head, nuzzling Celestia’s cheek affectionately.
“Philomena proves to be an excellent playmate for little Moonlight.” the younger alicorn told her sister. “I hope you won’t mind if I continue to borrow her from time to time.”
“Not at all.” the Princess of the Sun replied, returning phoenix's affection, before she glanced back at Luna. “Would you care to join me, little sister?”
Luna smiled, two towels at the wall catching her eye: one embroidered with big letter ‘C’ and a symbol of a sun, belonging to Celestia, and the other with letter ‘L’ and crest of the moon, property of Luna. Similar towels were hanged in her own bathroom, as the two sisters liked to take baths together from time to time.
“I would love that.” the younger Princess said, and quickly used her magic to take of her regalia and horseshoes, which she put next to Celestia’s.
Luna stepped carefully into the hot water, while her sister closed the door and moved a bit to make more room for her. The younger alicorn sighed once she was fully submerged, already feeling relaxed. While during the past week Celestia took on herself all royal duties, being a mother was almost equally hard, the only reason for adding ‘almost’ being the fact that she could always ask her maids for help.
“I will need to look for a nanny for her.” she thought regretfully, knowing that she would have to return to her duties.
“I assume you’ve sent Arthas back to Ponyville?” Celestia’s question brought her attention back to the present.
“Oh, yes.” Luna answered absentmindedly, and the one of the things she and Arthas talked about returned to her. “He overheard us talking at the balcony, Tia.”
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by that.” the white alicorn sighed, sinking deeper into the tub. “What did you tell him?”
“Only that it was nothing to worry about,” Luna replied, and grinned when she added: “and that he would find this amusing.”
Celestia’s eyes widened for a moment, before she erupted with laughter, to which Luna joined in. They continued to laugh for a while, causing Philomena to fly away some distance and look at the two alicorns with concern, as despite her huge intelligence she couldn’t figure out why this was so funny to them.
“I cannot wait to see the look on his face when it happens.” Celestia said through her laughter, covering her mouth with hoof as she began to calm down. “I hope by then he and Twilight will reconsider their current relationship. They would make such a cute couple.”
“Perhaps.” Luna chuckled, not understanding why Twilight chose things between her and Arthas to be this way. He at least had an excuse of extremely traumatic past. “It would be nice to have another wedding sometime soon. But, despite Twilight’s poor grasp of how relationships should work, you must be real proud of her for how she turned out.”
“I am.” Celestia replied, and her face spoke so as well - except for a small frown that anypony but Luna wouldn’t notice that appeared on her brow.
“What’s the matter?” the younger alicorn asked, not bothering to explain what she meant.
Celestia sighed, being annoyed probably that she spotted that frown, and leaned back in the tub.
“I had one other promising student like Twilight, over two hundred years ago.” the Princess said after a while, her eyes clouded as she recalled past. “Her name was Sunset Shimmer, and you could tell she had a great future ahead of her by just looking at her. Sunset might not had the rough talent with magic that Twilight has, but she was powerful in her own right. She was also... kind to everypony, much more confident that Twilight, and more than few times even argued with me.”
Luna watched as her sister spoke, and wasn’t surprise to see tears form in her eyes. She didn’t miss about her usage of past tense, which unfortunately wasn’t surprising as Sunset Shimmer lived two hundred years ago. Luna spared a second to blame herself for leaving her sister for the whole thousand years, when she noticed that something was off with her sister. Celestia became... sadder than she should be. Even if it was former student of hers and was obviously close to her, Luna knew that Celestia, while always saddened by the death of others, grow to accept the fact that everypony had to pass away at some point.
Instead of asking, she moved closer to her sister and just looked at Celestia.
“She died to disease before she even reached the end of the second decade of her life.” the older alicorn finally said. “She developed this Zebola after her visit with me to the zebra tribes, and was the first and only pony to die to it. Once Sunset fallen ill, I myself and few others searched for cure, and we finally discovered... few weeks after her death.”
Luna, not knowing what else she could do, hugged Celestia. She has seldom seen her be so... defeated.
“We’ve managed to cure other ponies that caught it from her.” she continued, somehow managing not to weep. “It takes time for Zebola to reach its final stage... time that was too short for Sunset.” she sighed and finally looked back at Luna. “Other than what happened with you, that is the biggest failure of my life. I had long pondered whenever if I threw myself fully into searching for cure, would I manage to save her. But I had my duties, which Sunset was the first one to point it out to me. Even despite the pain she was in and delusions, she thought of others, asking for few of her friends that caught it from her, and telling me to not be sad if she would...”
She was then silenced by a tighter hug.
 
It was a warm night, as most of nights in Ponyville were during those last days of summer. Twilight made her way back to her home, returning from the party Pinkie Pie threw for her back in Sugarcube Corner - after the lavender unicorn cast a spell that prevented noises they would undoubtedly made to be heard by the sleeping Cakes upstairs - which involved dancing, talking, eating and drinking.
“I wonder if we might have overdid it a bit.” Twilight thought tiredly as she trotted, wobbling slightly.
Not that she’s drunk too much. Twilight learned her lesson back at the reception, and the last thing she needed right now was to get drunk and wake up next to Matt.
“Then again, that would have been quite impossible this time.” she thought regretfully as she opened the door to her library.
Trotting carefully to not wake up Spike, who she send off back home an hour or two earlier when he nearly fallen asleep standing up, Twilight reflected on how drunk Rainbow got again. Thankfully, she wasn’t nearly as bad as back that memorable night, and did not made out with anypony again. She was escorted back to her home by Fluttershy, who didn’t drink more than toast for Twilight at the beginning, and Applejack, who had her rope with her in case Rainbow would try to fly off. They were debating on not letting Dash go back home at all, as pegasi flying drunk was the perfect recipe for a disaster, laws aside, but the cyan pegasus was too stubborn.
“I hope that Rainbow Dash won’t try to make out with either of them.” Twilight chuckled to herself, but quickly stopped when halfway to the bedroom she noticed light coming from the bathroom. “Spike’s still awake? Or did he fallen asleep during his bubble bath... again?”
Confused, she walked towards Spike’s bed, and saw the sleeping baby dragon in it.
“I... guess he forgot to turn off the lights?” she came to a conclusion, and fixed his blanket, which partially slipped off from him. “I better go turn it off... although...” thought came to her as she recalled how tired she was from both the party and the whole day. “... it would be nice to take a bath.”
With that thought and mind, she headed to the bathroom, but there awaited her is a pleasant surprise. When she opened the door to it: the whole room was full of steam, and she could see, albeit barely, water in her bathtub.
“How nice of Spike to prepare a bath for me!” she thought, being pleased with her assistant’s thoughtfulness.
Making a mental note to give the baby dragon some gems tomorrow, Twilight trotted half blind through the bathroom, wondering how hot Spike must have set the water up to make the warmth stay this long. She checked it with her hoof, and decided that it is perfect and slowly crawled into the tub.
With eyes closed, she let a relaxed sigh escape her lips, when suddenly she felt her hind hooves touch something. Confused, Twilight opened her eyes.
 
Matthias was dozing off when he felt something touch his hind hooves, but he returned to his senses at once, his eyes snapping open...
... to see Twilight doing the same.
Both of their eyes widened, and the lavender mare also screamed and tried to move back; which, due to her back already pressed against the side of the bathtub, was impossible.
“Seriously?” he asked her once she stopped, rubbing his temples. “This one is on you.”
That seemed to calm her down, although there visible traces of red on her cheeks while she pressed her hind legs closer to her chest.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” she began to stammer. “I-I didn’t know you were back, I saw the light turned on and the steam, and I thought Spike prepared it for me, and...”
“Twilight,” Matthias interrupted her, raising one hoof, while rearranging his position and tail so that he was sure she wouldn’t see his privates, “I am way too tired to make any sense of that.”
“Oh, right, sorry.” the unicorn said, now even more red. “I... I will go now...”
“Stay.” Matthias told her before she could get up, and as she turned to him shocked, he explained: “We find ourselves in these situations so often that we might as well not be bothered by this... besides, we are friends, right? There is no reason for tension.”
Twilight looked at him suspiciously and embarrassed, before she nodded and tried to make herself more comfortable, without any part of their bodies touching. Matthias guessed by her movement that she moved her tail between her legs, although with all those bubbles the risk of him seeing anything was close to zero.
“Weren’t you supposed to stay in Canterlot?” she asked, with her cheeks still red as she tried to not look at him.
“I had forgotten that the Princesses could just send me here after we were done.” Matthias replied, a bit ashamed of that. He was also not entirely comfortable with Twilight and him sharing a bath, the only reason for him making stay being his extreme exhaustion and not wanting to deal with this in the morning. “Where were you? I thought you were sleeping by now.”
“Pinkie threw a party for me. You know, cause I passed and... all.” her eyes sharpened and she looked straight at him. “You knew I was going to pass all along!”
Matthias nodded, picking up a weak scent of alcohol from her breath.
“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Twilight shouted, leaning closer to him. “Do you have any idea how awful the ride back to Canterlot was for me?! How I felt knowing I failed when everypony told me I was going to do great?!”
“Yes, but tell me: if had I said anything, would you believed me?” he asked her, raising one eyebrow.
It was clearly wrong thing to say, as after brief second of staring at him in shock, Twilight’s eyes began twitching and her horn glowed. However, before he could react in any way, something happened that made him wish she had carried on whatever her intent was.
“What are you two doing?” a sleepy voice of Spike, coming through the doorway, asked.
 
Twilight looked away from Matt’s face which, she just now realized, she was dangerously close to. She shifted her gaze to regard the baby dragon.
“Oh, no...” was all she managed to think as, while Spike looked at them both, rubbing his eyes.
The unicorn could not believe that in her slightly tipsy state she forgot to close the door to the bathroom, that she shouted so loud as to wake him up, or that she would have such bad luck today. If Twilight was presented with choice whenever she would want to take another test or deal with this she would gladly take the first one.
Before she could respond in any way to Spike, she felt a pair of strong hooves grab her, twist her around, and then - to her utter shock - some water was poured on her mane.
“I’m just helping Twilight wash her mane.” Matt said, a bit too normal sounding, as the unicorn realized one of his hooves was currently applying a shampoo on her head. “Nothing interesting to see here, Spike, sorry we woke you up.”
Twilight did her best to smile at the little dragon, trying to look convincing, and apparently he bought in, as he shrugged and went back to his bed. She sighed, and leaned back, forgetting for a moment about her discomfort as she laid against Matt’s chest.
“This won’t end well.” she muttered as the stallion continued to massage her head, washing her mane.
“Let’s just make sure he doesn’t meet your brother any time soon.” Matt replied in a low voice. “I’m sure if we manage that, everything will be fine.”
Twilight nodded absentmindedly and chuckled, but her bliss state didn’t last long, as she soon realized what was happening.
“I’m... this close to Matt...” she thought and she stiffed, clenching her hind legs automatically, glad that her back was pressed against his chest and not... something else.
“What’s the matter?” he asked her, no doubt noticing change in her behaviour, while continuing what he was doing.
“I... don’t think we should...” Twilight stuttered, not able to form full sentence in this situation, felling hot with shame and embarrassment.
It was one thing to accept what they felt for each other, and still be friends. This closeness... is something completely different, and Twilight did not know what do. Before she could do anything, Matt embraced her chest with one foreleg gently, not in intimate manner, but as one would hug a friend... provided that in some bizarre way another two friends other than them would end up in this situation.
“Twilight,” he whispered directly to her ear, “I would never, ever, do something to you that would hurt you in any way. Don’t you trust me?”
The lavender unicorn, hearing that, has gulped and nodded, feeling a bit guilty. Of course she trusted Matt, she should have known he would stay... sane, in this situation. As the stallion, who returned to washing her mane, let go of her chest, Twilight began to relax under her friend’s tender care.
Her thoughts wandered, as the events of this day began to take toll on her. Twilight breathed deeply, abandoning herself to Matt’s treatment, fully trusting him to not do anything that could harm her or their friendship. It didn’t took long for her to enjoy the feeling of his hooves going through her mane, his touch on her coat, few occasional rubs on her horn...
All of a sudden, Twilight was experiencing a new emotion: arousal.
It wasn’t completely different; she already felt it back when they were trapped under the debris a while ago. But this time it was much more intense, and now Twilight was able to set it apart from love she felt in her heart. This new feeling was burning like fire in her loins, as she thought about his body being so close to hers, his stallionhood just within her reach, and her...
The water Matt poured on her head to clean it from the shampoo, while warm, worked on her like a cold shower, snapping her back to her senses.
“No!” she thought, desperately trying to make this burning sensation to go away. “Bad Twilight! He’s your friend!”
“How was Canterlot?” Twilight asked, hoping that if her mind would concentrate on something else, her body would give up.
“Fine, I suppose.” Matt replied, still keeping her close to himself despite being done with her mane. “I discussed a lot of things with the Princesses, and later spent some time with Moonlight. I even pranced around with her on my back, much to her delight.” he added, with a hint of both amusement and embarrassment.
“Even the image of him having a foal on his back isn’t helping...” Twilight realized to her despair, finding it harder to not press her hoof against her marehood. “In fact, I think it’s getting worse... what is wrong with me?!”
She almost said then that she wanted to leave, but doing so could alarm Matt as to why, and possible make things uncomfortable between them. Not to mention that it would be embarrassing to her, not only due to obvious reasons, but also because she would prove herself weak to such primal urges, while Matt was clearly not bothered by them. So Twilight’s rational part of mind fought with her primitive one, as she went over every possible thing they could talk about that could maybe make her body stop.
“What were those places you mentioned?” she asked out loud, hoping her voice wasn’t going to quiver. “The Frozen Throne?” Even before those words left her lips, she felt Matt’s tense, as if she poured cold water onto him. Hoping this conversation would have similar effect on her, she continued: “You know… this is the second time that you mentioned it; the first when those three jerky dragons fought with you, you said you defeated a demon hunter – whatever that is - called Illidan Stormrage there.”
“You… have a great memory.” Twilight heard him whisper to her ear.
“Well, you also managed to surprise me in that term, when you recited my own words.” she said, finding some calmness in her long sentences. “Now that I think about it, you did so before; after your fight with Mighty Shot, when I mentioned my worries about wedding.”
He his hooves gently pressed harder against her shoulders, which is probably his way of saying ‘okay, I’m impressed’, but only served to fuel the sensation in her loins.
“The Frozen Throne...” Matt whispered, his voice sounding as if coming from far away. “I guess it could be best described as the place where I became the monster that Brann saw in me once he arrived.”
This confession, which also reminded her that Matt was once an evil being, somewhat eased her body, but not enough to be comfortable.
“And this Angrathar?” she asked, while wondering if he would notice if she put one hoof between her hind legs; she had never done so before, but this feeling was unbearable.
“It... was a sight of great and terrible battle.” he replied, almost mechanically. Some rational part of Twilight’s mind guessed that if she saw his eyes right then, they would be clouded in mist, like they were so long ago when she first met him. “No, not battle - it was a mass murder.”
“And the... Forsaken?” she asked unsure, remembering that they were apparently responsible for that.
That name had an unexpected result: Matt shook, and gasped, as if recalling something terrible. When he finally answered, his voice quivered:
“They... they were people that I harmed... a lot.”
“How?”
Twilight waited long for an answer to that question. So long, that she decided to glance behind her, for she worried that it angered him with all these snooping around.
What she saw made her heart skip a beat.
Matt, the most tough pony she knew, who practically laughed in the face of death just few hours earlier... was weeping like a foal.
“Please...” he gasped finally, his voice completely broken. “don’t ask me... please... I’m so sorry... I didn’t want any of that... don’t ask me...”
So shocked that Twilight was, that it took him few more seconds of mumbling, before she finally did what a friend was supposed to do.
She hugged him.
Matt hugged her back almost immediately, and wept openly into her shoulder. Twilight didn’t say a word. She didn’t know what to say, nor even if something could be said, but fully understanding that just being for him now was what mattered.
She patted him on the back, as the time passed.
 
Matthias sniffed for the last time, not sure how long he was crying or how it came to that. There hasn’t been a moment that he had not felt guilty, ashamed, sorry, and many other things about what he did, but he never before showed it like this. But the moment Twilight asked him about his former subjects; it was as if a dam broke in his heart.
The paladin was dimly aware that the water was now cold, meaning they had to sit like this in embrace for a long time. He now felt guilty and embarrassed for this, and figured he had to explain some of it to Twilight.
“Thanks, Twilight.” he started, not pulling back just yet. “For... being here. And I’m sorry for it.”
He stopped then, giving her a chance to react, to release him from her embrace, but nothing happened.
“Twilight?” he asked, worried, but his worry soon turned into mild irritation as he recalled how long ago she stopped patting his back. “You’re asleep, aren’t you?”
Matthias pulled back as much as he could - which wasn’t far, as Twilight’s grip was tight and would probably prove unbreakable, unless he woke her up - and was proven right: Twilight is asleep, her head resting on his shoulder.
Sighing, the earth pony wondered what to do. The sensible thing would be to wake her up, but... she looked so peaceful...
 
“I am the most pathetic creature there is.” Matthias thought bitterly as he carefully walked towards the bedroom, holding Twilight to his chest, not letting her go.
It took both of them a whole hour to dry off naturally, as he was afraid to awaken her by using any towels. That alone spoke something about his patheticness, even if some part of his mind recognized it as romanticism. Still, he was pathetic while doing so.
He almost reached their beds, not sure at that point on which one should he - and her - lay, when something that he feared happened.
Somepony woke up.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t Twilight.
Spike rose from his sleeping place, rubbing his eyes as he looked at Matthias, who was holding up a sleeping Twilight, as she was still clenched to him. Not sure what else he could do, the earth pony pointed a hoof at the baby dragon.
“This is a dream.” he told him in mystical-like voice.
To his surprise, it seemed to work; as Spike nodded and laid back, rolling his head away from the two of them. Matthias sighed, and headed to his bed, not wanting to risk waking up Spike again.
Once they are lying comfortably on his bed under blankets, he looked at Twilight, amazed how beautiful she was to him. Gently, he lifted one hoof to her face, brushing away lock of hair, wondering if it would be okay to kiss her right now as he breathed in her sweet scent. In the end, he decided not to. Not because it would be wrong, or out of fear what she might do to him, or what would Rainbow do - although he wasn’t sure if she’d do anything - but because of one, simple thing.
Twilight was innocent, unspoiled.
She could do better than him, and she most certainly did not need his shadow covering her.
“Goodnight, my love.” Matthias thought as he snuggled to her, not caring if she would murder him in return once she woke up.
 



 
Twilight was quick to realise this as she woke up.
She slept with Matt... again!
For a heartbeat, her mind was filled with panic, just like the first time. But unlike then, she had the memory of everything that happened prior... aside from how they ended up in bed, as she was certain she fallen asleep in the bathtub. Overall, she couldn’t complain about that.
Besides, she trusted Matt. Twilight knew that he wouldn’t do anything to her. She doubted he even kissed her, although to her mild surprise, she found that she wouldn’t mind.
She shaked her head a bit as she pulled back, being careful not to wake him. Twilight thought about the events of the night. How, because of her own shortcomings, she brought painful memories to Matt. Fighting off tears of shame, she thought about a way to make it up to him.
 
Matthias waken up to stare into a set of purple eyes... of a much brighter shade than he expected. The scent also didn’t match...
“Rainbow?” he finally asked, surprised, as his head backed away slightly.
“Who else did you expect?” she asked back, smirking, no doubt knowing the answer. “Twilight came to me about an hour ago, and said you might need some cheering up once you wake up. She also took Spike off to do some errands around town, saying they would be back by evening.”
Many confusing thoughts went through his head at that statement - relief, wonder, shame, amusement, excitement, amazement and arousal... - most of them steaming from a simple fact that Twilight basically gave them her blessing to buck in her own house.
“I’m afraid that for next few hours I won’t be of much use.” he said to her regretfully, still feeling tired from yesterday, both physically and emotionally.
“Okay, we can snuggle a bit.”
The carefree reply put him off track for a moment.
“Since when do you like ‘mushy’ stuff?”
“Look,” Rainbow had said, sighing and rolling her eyes, “I know I’m not good at this, but you’re obviously feeling down because of something, and you’re not just somepony I rut with when I’m bored. You’re my friend, so I will help you. Besides,” she added, smiling weekly, “I have a bit of hangover...”
Matthias chuckled quietly and pulled her closer to him, and Rainbow in return wrapped her wing around him as they both snuggled.