//------------------------------// // Boiling Point // Story: Her Void Pink // by Darkryt Orbinautz //------------------------------// As her friends attempted to salvage what could be of the picnic's food, each having agreed they should probably reschedule this for another time after the incident with the pail, Twilight stood still for two reasons. One, she didn't know what to do about the salad on her hoof. Two, the notion of having slapped Pinkie was still ringing around in her head. Slapping Pinkie . . . even with all her ability to appear in one place at random, there should not have been anyway for Pinkie Pie to know what had gone on in her dreamscape. But that didn't make it hurt less. If anything, it made it hurt more. She didn't realize what she was doing. 'Ignorance is bliss' or say the saying goes. "Well!" Rarity huffed with a head flick. "I say once we've got everything we can save gathered up, I say we all head for the spa. At least that way, we'll all be wet of our own volition." "Sounds good, Ah guess." Applejack replied. Everypony but Twilight voiced their agreement, though Dash's was more reluctantly than the others. "What about you, Twilight?" Twilight reared her neck back. She was still thinking about Pinkie, about all the horrible, horrible things that could've happened to their friendship if that slap had connected to really care about whether or not she wanted to go the spa. "Oh, gee, I'd- I'd love to, but um, I don't know what to do about . . ." Twilight didn't know what to do about a lot of things recently, but to specify, she raised her back hoof, showing the salad goop stuck to it. She briefly considered just wiping on the grass, but Fluttershy would probably have a fit at her like she to Spike moments ago. "Oh, just wipe your hoof over there." Fluttershy said, pointing a patch of dirt a leg's length away from the picnic's location. "The ants will appreciate it." In a certain world that started with 'E' and ended with 'H', the idea of having a picnic so close to where ants were known to lay would've made the residents recoil. But the ponies of Equestria all shared connections with nature, no matter their type, so ants wouldn't be an issue so long as someone who could speak gently -like Fluttershy- was around to request they go away. Twilight limped on three hooves over to Fluttershy's suggested location, her salad-soaked hoof raised to make less of a mess. Once there, with Fluttershy's nodded approval, Twilight stuck her hoof into the grass and smeared the plantation with the ruined food. Once her appendage was clear, Twilight quickly galloped away so that when the ants came out, she wouldn't step on them. Rarity brushed passed Fluttershy to intercept the Sparkle pony. "I'm afraid, Twilight, that I never got your confirmation as to whether or not you would like the idea of a spa trip." "Y-yeah." Twilight stuttered. "Sounds great!" She looked forward to spending time with her friends, even if it wasn't how they were planning on spending it originally . . . and then there was Pinkie. Spike and all the ponies rounded up, Rarity took point in leading the way to the spa. A few ponies going about their daily lives waved as they're group walked by. A few shyer ones hid behind their manes the way Fluttershy did. Twilight kept looking at Pinkie, then looking up ahead at where Rarity was taking them before Pinkie could notice. At least the first few times. She slipped up and stared just a little too long, allowing Pinkie to see that she was being stared at. Twilight bit her lips and blushed at her discovery. Unfortunately, it was not her on-command blush trick, so she couldn't make it go away. Pinkie appeared to not notice. She just smiled widely and waved at her. Twilight felt alleviated at Pinkie's unaltered behavior. A quiet sigh of relief escaped her, which made Fluttershy come over and ask if she was all right. After assuring Fluttershy she was fine, Rarity announced they had arrived at the spa. "We're here! Just you wait, girls, a few minutes in here with the girls here, and you'll feel like a whole new you!" Rarity excitedly told them. "Wut's wrong wit' tah old me?" Applejack asked suspiciously. "Yeah." Dash agreed, ego showing like a firefly amidst a bushel of nuts. "You can't seriously tell me you can improve me." "It's a figure of speech." Rarity informed them through gritted teeth, trying to get them to drop the subject. "Ooh!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Is that anything like a Bigure'de'Peech?" " . . . A what?" "A Bigure'de'Peech is an old candy treat that's been handed down over a few dozen decades." Twilight answered before she could realize what she was doing, her intimate knowledge of variety of facts overriding her uneasiness around Pinkie Pie. "I wouldn't be surprised if Sugarcube Corner makes it, and no, Pinkie, it's nothing like a figure of speech." "Oh . . . okay then!" Rarity put a hoof over her forehead. "Can we please just go into the spa now?" Everypony nodded, apologized, and asked Rarity to lead the way. They followed behind quietly as she entered the spa doors. The inside of the building was much more serene than the outside. If it wasn't for the sign, the spa's outside would've been dismissible as any ol' building, but the inside was bluish-white, with towels and therapy supplies neatly strewn about in way that yelped 'come here when you're tense and need to unwind!' "Rarity!" The blue-maned, blue-eyed, pink-coated pony with a eyeliner-heavy eyes and a white headband with a red dot on it greeted. "What can we do today for one of our most well-paying customers?" She gasped at the sight of Fluttershy. "Oh, and you brought Fluttershy with you! How lovely!" Rarity chuckled. "On the contrary, I've brought all my friends. I request an individual session for each!" "An individual . . . session . . . for each?" The clerk stuttered. The reason for her awe became clear as dollar signs appeared in her eyes. She shook her head to rid the signs from her eyes and cleared her throat. "Are you certain you have the bits to pay that, Miss Rarity?" "Of course I am!" Rarity confidently told her. "I would never be so crass to ask for something I can't afford!" (Presumably, this doesn't apply to Hearth's Warming Eve season.) "Right, right . . ." The clerk said, then walked around the counter over to make a headcount. "You!" She pointed to Spike. "Come with me. We have unique methods of treating your kind." Her wording made Twilight, Fluttershy and Spike all worry, but it was Spike who asked "W-what do you mean?" "You're a dragon!" The clerk said rather obviously. "Ponies enjoy having their hooves pampered, dipping in hot water and a good masseuse! On dragons, that sort of thing just won't do, so we have a reserve area where pets like yourself can dip into fresh-brewed magma, get those loose scales leftover from last molting seasons off and their claws sharpened!" The three of them all relaxed, and Spike appeared to become intrigued. "I do have a problem with leftover scales . . ." The clerk pony guided him over to a entrance to another room. After Spike entered, the clerk came back for them and guided one by one to other rooms, each time telling them a masseuse would arrive for them shortly. The room Twilight got was a simple room with two massage tables and a bowl of water resting over on a non-massage table for . . . some spa reason Twilight didn't know of. Lacking a proper manual for the conduct she should be taking, Twilight climbed onto the massage table and lied on it. Nothing happened for longer than Twilight felt comfortable with. Anypony could come into the room, do something . . . untowards and the acoustics wouldn't be enough to get her cries for help outside the room. Nothing happened for longer than Twilight felt comfortable with. Anypony could come into the room, do something . . . untowards and the acoustics wouldn't be enough to get her cries for help outside the room. Nothing happened for longer than Twilight felt comfortable with. Anypony could come into the room, do something . . . untowards and the acoustics wouldn't be enough to get her cries for help outside the room. "GYA!" Twilight screamed, unable to bear it any longer. She knew she probably shouldn't do what she was about to do, but she needed to hear something- a noise, a squeak, some music on the radio . . . but as she didn't see anything of the sort, she was just going to use her magic to blast something to smithereens. It would've cost her some repute, and more than a few bits to place whatever in the room was going to be damaged by it, but she decided it was better the room than her mind. For something Twilight would be forever grateful to her for, a spa pony just like the clerk came into the room before she could get a spell off, the click of the doorknob finally made a blasted sound. "Hoo!" Twilight exclaimed. "Thank goodness you came when you did! The room was so quiet I was about to blast something just to make noise!" The masseuse giggled. It sounded familiar. "You couldn't have just clapped your hooves together?" Twilight stared at the masseuse. Unbridled embarrassment overcame her thinking, preventing any other response. That was not only a logical suggestion, as the room probably would've echoed the clap, but it also wouldn't end with her paying a fine, fine. ". . . I didn't think of that." The masseuse giggled again. "For such a smart pony, you sure seem to not think about the little things! Now, can you stretch your limbs out for me?" Twilight was befuddled by the request, but she figured it must've had something to do with a spa treatment, so she obliged, splaying her legs out all across the table in different directions. The masseuse grabbed her front left leg, putting one hoof on hers and one hoof on Twilight's shoulder-equivalent area. The masseuse squeezed them together, causing her shoulder-equivalent area to pop -PAINFULLY. VERY, VERY PAINFULLY. But after a moment, the pain subsided, and Twilight's leg was overcome with a relaxing sensation so good, so good, that she couldn't keep herself from moaning slightly. The masseuse giggled. Twilight was starting to wonder about her. Why did she keep giggling, and why did it sound so familiar? "You sound like you liked that!" The masseuse exclaimed after Twilight's short moans came to a quiet stop. "Don't worry, we still have three legs to go before we're done!" Another three more pops, another three more moments of PAIN PAIN OH CELESTIA THE PAIN, another three series of quiet little moans ensued. "All righty, now that we're done with that, let's do this!" The masseuse began massaging Twilight's back with an extremely sensitive caress. It felt amazingly good. Amazingly. Amazing . . . Divine, even. Twilight did a record-first and cursed the fact she had to report to Celestia regularly, for it was the first thing that came to mind when the librarian thought of a reason why she would eventually to have leave the spa . . . leave this- this chamber of pleasure. The masseuse was so soft and delicate that Twilight was certain the masseuse could rip her horn straight out of her head and be so gentle that she wouldn't have minded. The doorknob clicked open, taking the both of them by surprise. A fuchsia Earth pony with a teal green mane stepped into the room. "Sorry 'bout the wait, darlin'." She said."I had to-huh?" She saw the masseuse working on Twilight, with Twilight and the masseuse looking right back. "Eeesh!" The fuchsia pony exclaimed. "I know the boss has a dress code, but don't you think you're takin' it a little far making yerself look exactly like her? Who are you, anyhoo?" The masseuse that had been working on Twilight for the last few minutes grabbed at her mane . . . then proceeded to yank it straight off, revealing not only a wig, but a mane beneath that was bouncy and curly like a scoop of cotton candy. "Pinkie!?" Twilight exclaimed. "What-what are you doing?" "I, uh . . ." Pinkie was abnormally quiet as she plucked the wig for her tail off. "I could tell you reeeeeeally didn't like when I shocked you with the joy buzzer earlier, and I felt bad about it." "So you impersonated a masseuse to massage me to make up for it!?" ". . . Uh, yeah?" Twilight sat there with eyes open and jaw dropped at the depth of Pinkie's insanity. (Not that she was one to talk . . .) . . . Of course, in retrospect, the masseuse having been Pinkie Pie all along would explain why Twilight turned into a gushy, mushy . . . mushy-mushy-mush-mush at her touch. "Um . . . this is a weird way of apologizing. Pinkie, but I . . ." Twilight put her hoof on Pinkie's cheek to comfort her, but touching Pinkie made Twilight lose her train of thought. She rubbed Pinkie's cheek. "You what, Twilight?" Twilight shirked away, embarrassed that she would forget to say something to Pinkie in favor of touching her. "I forgive you! Yes, forgive! That's it. That's the word I was trying to say." "Not this isn't all very touchin'. . ." The fuchsia pony interrupted. "But I need to know how this affects my pay. I'm paid per customer, you know!" Twilight and Pinkie looked at each other for an answer. Twilight fiddled her hooves together, lacking an appropriate response of any sort. Pinkie Pie, quite clearly sensing her discomfort, wrapped a leg around her neck. "We'll just quietly slip out of here and just say you did all the work." The fuchsia pony seemed to not like this idea. "Are ya sure? That seems dishonest . . ." Twilight and Pinkie looked at each other again. Before Twilight could say anything, Pinkie stepped forward. "You know what? You're right. I'll just talk to your boss and explain what happened." The fuchsia pony bowed her head. "Thank you." Pinkie followed the real masseuse out of the room, leaving Twilight alone. Twilight decided she should go ahead and leave the spa. On her way out, Twilight swung by the clerk's and asked her friends be told where she went. After the clerk affirmed she would, Twilight stepped outside to come face-to-face with her namesake. A twilight sky swept the land above the spa. "Wow," Twilight thought to herself. "Is it that late already?" With this knowledge passed into her mind, Twilight swung back into the spa and asked the clerk to ask a friend to walk Spike home. A young dragon like him had no business being out and about as late as night as it would be by the time he was done with whatever he picked out the spa's treatment. Twilight galloped her way from the spa back to the sanctuary of her treehouse library, 'cheating' by teleporting to get there faster. Once inside, she locked the door behind herself and cleared the desk of her library, ready to read a book . . . before remembering that the last time she did that, she fell asleep and had a very painful dream that came true in a weird way, so she decided to go ahead and start on Spike's and her's dinner. Blue flame beneath the cold steel of the pot she started, Twilight was content, worrying more about whether nor Spike would like her recipe more then anything else at the moment. A knock came onto the door to the library that Twilight could hear even all the way in from the kitchen. Lowering the pot's flame with her magic so that it wouldn't boil before she ready, she made her to the door and opened it to meet an Earth pony with a flowery mane and coat like picked plums. "H-hello." Twilight greeted at the stranger in her library, who was visiting so late at night. "Can I help you?" "Oh no no no, I'm here to help you!" The Earth pony told answered. "You are Twilight Sparkle, are you not?" "Y-yeah." Twilight answered nervously. She didn't like ponies knowing her name before she introduced herself. "Cheerilee. May I come in?" OH! Cheerilee! The Ponyville teacher Applejack said would be visiting in the evening! That made Twilight feel . . . a little better. "Yeah, sure!" Twilight moved out of the door to allow her entry. "I'm getting to work on dinner. Will you be staying?" "Oh, no. Thank you. I'll help you make it if you'd like, though." That caught Twilight off-guard. An assistant, even a temporary one, that wasn't Spike or Owlowiscious? How strange, but Twilight welcomed her assist. Additionally, it would be an excellent way to get Cheerilee somewhere where Twilight could question her. After leading Cheerilee into the kitchen and setting her to work cutting vegetables (something Cheerilee found confusing due to Twilight's unicorn status.) and setting the flame back up, Twilight felt ready to drop the question on her mind. "Soo, Cheerilee . . . Applejack told me you'd be visiting, and I get the feeling you didn't come all this way just to help make a dinner you're not going to eat." Cheerilee scoffed. "Oh, that Applejack! She's just terrible at keeping secrets, isn't she?" "Hmmp." Twilight replied. Applejack's unfitness as a secret-keeper was not the issue at hoof. "Why are you visiting, Cheerilee?" "Oh, see . . . " Cheerilee said, waving the knife in her hoof. "Your week is about to start!" To Twilight, that just made more questions then answers. Her week? Since when did she have a week? What does that even mean? At Twilight's understandably confused expression, Cheerilee elaborated. "See, you're the newest pony to move into Ponyville, and the last pony to have moved in- that's me- helps the next pony who does- that's you with preparing for their week! "What is my 'week'!?" Twilight demanded harshly. She was starting to get really frustrated at all these riddles and hoops everypony seemed intent on putting her through! "Oh! It's a week where Pinkie Pie takes time out of her schedule to spend the next 24/7 exclusively with Ponyville's newest arrival!" . . . . . . . . . "Um, Twilight?" Cheerilee asked. "Are you okay?" . . . . . . . . . No.