Chapter XVII
The Talent
Day 111
Another ordinary day at the royal castle in Canterlot, Princess Celestia is quietly having her tea and cake for brunch in her study.
At another part of the castle, two royal guards are forcibly escorting a prisoner who is putting up quite a struggle.
"Let me go you dumb oafs!" yelled the prisoner, trying get free.
The guards then take her to a large door. "We have the prisoner you requested Your Highness!" announced one of the guards.
The door magically opens, letting the guards with the prisoner in. The guards unceremoniously drop the prisoner to the floor in front of Celestia. They both bow to her and then quickly march out, closing the door behind him.
"Sorry for the rough handling, but that's what you get when you don't cooperate." stated Celestia while drinking her tea.
The prisoner, covered in bruises, dirt, a messy mane and sunken eyes, just gets up and angrily looks at the princess.
"Trixie doesn't want to be here!" spat the blue unicorn. "Trixie told you that she wasn't interested!"
Celestia finishes her tea and just looks at the prisoner named Trixie with pity. "With your current living conditions, I'd thought you'd accept the offer."
"Trixie doesn't take charity!" Trixie snarled. "Especially from a royal!"
"I'd be wise in accepting other pony's charity." explained Celestia, calmly to her. "Especially since you've been living on the streets since you were defeated in Ponyville over two months ago. How did Adam defeat you again?" Celestia asks.
"BUCK YOU!" Trixie angrily spat.
Trixie suddenly felt a golden aura surround her body before being lifted off the ground and then suddenly drops to the floor. "Language like that isn't going to get you anywhere!" sternly stated the princess, her horn glowing, using her magic to levitate Trixie before dropping her to floor.
"Is that all you can do!?" spat Trixie. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is too kinky to torture!" she stubbornly continued.
"Hm, then I guess your too kinky for this then." stated Celestia before her horn started glowing.
Trixie could then suddenly feel pressure building around her neck, as she feels an invisible force choking her. Celestia is using her magic to choke her.
"I promised myself that I would stop doing that, but there is something I need taken care off and I just don't have the time to play games and troll around." stated Celestia in her usual demeanor.
"What...do you...want?" said Trixie between breaths, as the pressure around her neck builds, her whites of her eyes slowly turning red.
"I want you to take care of a monkey problem that has been troubling me for months now, I feel that he's becoming a bad influence around the elements, plus the fact that I know each and every varying grotesqueries of his species...has led me to conclude that he is unfit to live Equestria." explained Celestia.
"Why...me?" said a struggling Trixie, still being choked.
"Because you have a very strong sense of revenge in you, and that sense will be very useful to me." answered Celestia.
"I'll...do it!" exclaimed Trixie as her vision begins to darken. Celestia then stops choking her, causing Trixie to collapse on to the ground to breathing heavily and catching her breath.
"GUARDS!" yelled Celestia.
Two guards come into the study and bow to the princess.
"Take her to one of the guests rooms and tell the maids make her look more presentable." ordered Celestia.
The two guards nod and drag Trixie out of the study.
"Very useful indeed." smirked Celestia to herself.
"Do you trust me?" asked Adam to Fluttershy.
"F-fully." stammered Fluttershy, who is blindfolded and being carried on the human's back.
The yellow pegasus doesn't know what the human is planning, he just came over to her cottage and told her to put on a blindfold because he has a surprise.
"Don't worry...we're almost there, no need to feel intimidated." stated Adam.
Fluttershy does indeed trust the human fully, that's one of the reasons she feel in love with him.
"Where here!" announced Adam. "You can get off and take off your blindfold now."
The yellow pegasus nervously does as told and floats away from the human, only to see the most unexpectedly beautiful site, in the middle of the snow covered forest was a hot spring. "What is this place?" she asked in awe.
"You like it? I discovered it accidently while on a hike two days ago." explained the human. Fluttershy was still in awe at the site. But then she sees Adam walk in front of her, crouch down and take her hoof. They both stare into each other's eyes for what felt like a long time. "I love you." was all the human said to her.
Fluttershy didn't know what to say next, this is all just going as she dreamed she would. "I-I know..." she stammered.
Adam then takes Fluttershy's hoof and puts it on his chest. "And I have never been more sure about our relationship." Fluttershy could feel his heartbeat.
They continue to stand there doing nothing but stare at each other before they envelop each other into a hug. "Want to try out the springs?" he whispers into her ear.
"If you want to of course." she whispers back. They both break their embrace.
"Good, you go right ahead and enjoy yourself, I'll be finding a dry place for me to get ready." he instructed. Fluttershy just smiles and nods in agreement. Adam then walks to behind some rocks while the pegasus gingerly dives into the hot spring. The spring was at the same temperature as the hot tub at the local spa, perfect.
Fluttershy then fully immerses herself into the spring, the warm temperatures relaxing her body. She dives her head under to wet her mane, before swimming over to the edge to relax.
"Okay! I'm ready!" Adam announces as he steps up to the spring and puts his clothes into a neat pile on top of a rock and rakes out a basket. "I also brought along the shampoo, conditioner, towels and sponges that Rarity gave me." he states.
Fluttershy then blushes when she sees that Adam is standing naked in front of her. It's not the nudity that's bothering her, it's the fact that she never saw him naked before that did.
Adam just casually places the basket at the edge of the spring behind Fluttershy before slowly immersing himself into the hot water. It took a while to get used to, but he finally managed to get his entire body in the water before relaxing on the edge next to the pegasus.
"I never knew about this place before." stated Fluttershy as she then cuddles up to the human, laying her head on his shoulder. "Mm, you make a great pillow." she muses.
Adam just smiles, "I know...tell me that every time we cuddle." he says in mock annoyance, before using his hand to lightly splash her on her face.
"Hey!" responded the pegasus, a mischievous smile forms on her lips. "Two can play that game!" she said before also splashing him back.
Soon, both the human and mare would spend the next few minutes splashing, grabbing and chasing each other in the spring. Both of them laughing and having a good time. Fluttershy truly felt that she can finally act like herself around him without fear of being judged.
"I always felt that my parents were a little disappointed with my choice of working on the ground." explained Fluttershy while having her mane shampooed and her scalp messaged by Adam.
"I know how that feels, my dad got upset when I told him I didn't want to work at the orchid." stated Adam. He then felt something in Fluttershy's mane, he reaches around inside it to find a pencil. "A pencil?"
"I was wondering where that went." stated the pegasus. "Sorry about that...I sometimes put things in there and forget about them, how many items so far?"
Adam goes to the basket to see all the stuff he found in Fluttershy's mane. "A bendy straw, four bits, a candlestick and now a pencil." he states before adding the object he found into the basket.
"Sometimes I dream of cutting my mane short...like Dash's, but I was always afraid how others would think of me if I did so." stated Fluttershy, with some pessimism in her voice.
Adam just turns her around to look at her. "Worrying about what others think will get you nowhere, the only opinion you should care about are those from your friends, Rainbow Dash..." he then gives Fluttershy a deep kiss before breaking it. "...and myself."
Fluttershy just let out a small "eep!" from that unexpected kiss. "Y-You really think so?" she quietly asks for confirmation, staring into his eyes.
Adam just smiles. "I know so." before their lips meet once again.
Trixie, who looks more presentable and clean, is escorted to Celestia's private study room by a guard. Trixie reluctantly enters the study to see the princess lounging on the floor, reading a large tome. Celestia then looks up to see her guest. "Ah...you really do clean up nicely." stated the princess.
"Cut the manure and tell me what you want from me." spat Trixie, still upset at being kept in the dark.
"Have you ever heard of the dark arts of magic?" asked Celestia, closing the tome she's reading and getting up.
"Yes...Trixie is familiar of the forbidden arts...you outlawed them after you and your sister defeated Discord if Trixie remembers." the blue unicorn states.
"Well...what if I told you I was an active user and master of the dark arts?" stated Celestia, walking up towards Trixie. "And what if I told you that I can teach you some of those forbidden spells?"
"Trixie would say that you're a liar, because why would someone like you practice such things?" answered Trixie.
"Actually, my former lover got me into it, seduced me into it and made me enjoy it." explained the princess, her tone becoming ominous.
"You had a lover?"
"We all had lovers at one point or another in our lives." stated Celestia.
"But why me?" asked a confused Trixie. "Why not your little preppy student Twilight Sparkle?" she asks incredulously.
"Twilight may be powerful, but her heart is too pure to physically handle the dark arts, if you're not careful, it could deform you." explained Celestia. "But you on the other hoof, you have the potential and the talent to be a great master of the dark arts."
"Me?"
"Of course...if a little training and some mental conditioning...you can because the most powerful wielder of the dark arts since Starswirl" explained Celestia.
"Really?" asked Trixie.
"Maybe even more so." whispered Celestia. The princess just smiles, she has her where she wants her.
Trixie just smiles at the thought of being not only more powerful than Twilight, but Starswirl as well. She didn't need to think it over. "Trixie is in."
Celestia just smiles, everything is going the way she planned it.
Both Adam and Fluttershy are returning back from their day at the hot springs. The couple mostly spent their remaining time there making-out, cuddling and talking.
"I had a lot of fun today, thank you." stated Fluttershy with a big smile on her face as they reach her cottage.
"I had a lot of fun too." said Adam.
They both kiss each other goodbye before Adam heads of back to his home.
Fluttershy enters her cottage and closes the door. She looks back on her day and she gives a loving sigh. "Miss Fluttershy Gray...I like the sound of that." she quietly muses to herself, a smile forms on her face.
TO BE CONTINUED...