"Okay, so let's go over the play once more," Rainbow Blitz said with a competitive edge in his voice.
Around him stood two other stallions, the rather dainty Butterscotch, who was panting from two minutes of play, and the beaming Bubble Berry, who somehow had snagged the ball by doing his signature 'pop-up-out-of-nowhere' thing. The team was far less than ideal for Blitz, who wanted to win pretty badly. However, he made the most out of what he had. He was the fastest of all the ponies, meaning they would focus on him while Butterscotch was left unguarded most of the time and Bubble did whatever he did.
"Do we have to?" Butterscotch whined.
"Yes," Blitz stated flatly, "Okay, so Butterscotch, you'll go down the left side past Elusive while Bubble, you zig zag around in front like this."
He motioned his hoof in a rapid and unorganized fashion back and forth, causing Bubble to grin wider.
"Oh! Oh! Does that mean I can do this?" he asked before running back and forth in short steps, resembling a dog.
"That's fine, whatever," Blitz responded, not really paying attention, "Now, when I shake Applejack, I will fake pass the ball to you, Bubble. You pretend to catch it to get Dusk's attention and run off while Butterscotch here--," he pointed to the yellow pegasus, "--gets ready to catch the ball behind Elusive. Got it?"
Bubble nodded his head so fast his pupils bounced around when he stopped while Butterscotch looked back at Blitz, confused.
"What was I supposed to do again?" he asked timidly.
The obnoxious shouting from Blitz easily made its way over to the other stallions standing opposite of the hoofball resting on the ground. The white unicorn sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes.
"At this rate, we won't finish before dark, and I have some new fashions to update myself on!" he whined.
"Ya think that's a problem? Ah gotta get up early tamarrah ta harvest some more apples," the orange stallion grumbled.
"Oh, like that's so hard," Elusive stated, unimpressed.
"Harder than readin' some fancy-schmancy magazine," Applejack responded a little too quickly.
"Guys, calm down," Dusk said, putting himself between them, "We all have stuff we need to do, so let's just try and have fun, okay? That's what this is about, right?"
The ponies moaned a response just as the opposing team broke huddle and approached the ball.
Red Gala settled into the warm, bubbly water and sighed. The heat felt good on her skin, allowing her tense muscles to relax. Around her came three other sighs, one from her each of her friends Sugarsnap, Thundercloud and Spines. Gala had her eyes open and chuckled slightly at the other mares. Sugarsnap looked very silly with her brown mane showing its natural curls, making it look like spaghetti sat on her head. Thundercloud's meticulously styled hedgehog spikes drooped to one side and Spines nearly disappeared into the bubbles.
Around them, several other mares enjoyed the spa as well. Sharp Shears sat in the mud bath with her friend Notable, a blue mare. Doctor Hoovesy, or just Doc as she was known, lay on a massage table, allowing one of the spa stallions to rub her back. The pastel blue one, Suave, gently applied pressure to her back, causing her to moan happily. His brother, the pink one known as Axe, was busy trotting around, seeing if all the mares were happy.
The fact the mares were comfortable around these two was a feat in itself. Axe and Suave had a very hard time starting out here in Ponyville, since most stallions were not into spa visits. Knowing they needed to attract the mares to their spa, the ponies offered to shut down the spa to all stallions one evening a week so the mares could unwind by themselves. It took a couple of tries, but eventually every mare came on that evening to be pampered. Many stallions were often jealous of Axe and Suave's success and tried to get job there, but they never were accepted. Axe and Suave took great lengths to ensure the mares were comfortable, going as far as to wear blinders or blindfolds when asked too.
The sun peeked brightly through the few windows near the ceiling, painting the walls gold and crimson. The aroma of fresh flowers and soap hung in the air, a rather intoxicating scent for mares. Soft music played through a radio on the far side of the room, allowing a sense of tranquility to permeate the room the same way the smell did.
And as quickly as that sense of tranquility set in for Red Gala, it was gone.
A loud crash broke the peace as something splashed into the mud bath, sending the earthen substance everywhere. Notable yelped and jumped out of the bath, still covered in the stuff as Doc got a glob in the face. Both ponies were immediately attended to by Axe and Suave, who procured towels and lead them away to the back room to get in the showers while they cleaned the broken glass now all over the floor. With Gala, Sugarsnap, Thundercloud and Spines luckily avoiding the mud projectiles, they looked over in curiosity as Sharp waded around in the mud, looking for whatever came in.
"Bubble!" Blitz shouted at the pink pony, "Why didn't you throw it to me better?!"
"I did exactly as you said!" Bubble shouted back to the cyan stallion, who was being held back by the orange earth pony.
"Well, that's just great," Dusk mused in an annoyed voice, "There goes my regulation sized hoofball autographed by Firespout."
Elusive trotted over to Dusk and stared at the broken window with him. It was unusually high up on the building, not a normal placement for a home. Before he could say anything, though, the yellow pegasus fluttered over to them as Blitz shouted.
"Well then?! Let's go get it back!"
Gala tilted her head as Sharp lifted an object out of the mud bath. It was oblong, looking like an oval with points on the end. She felt her friends move closer to get a better look.
"What is that?" Sugarsnap asked.
It didn't take long for Gala and Spines to recognize the object. Gala had seen her brothers play with a similar thing and Spines knew there was one of those up on a shelf that Dusk proudly kept.
"It's a hoofball," they said together.
As soon as they finished speaking, a knock came from the door, drawing the attention of the mares and dragon. Before any of them could say something, some arguing erupted from behind the door. They were unable to make out what was said, but it was clear whoever it was wasn't happy. The arguing got louder and it quieted for a second, causing the mares to look at each other.
"A one! A two! A three!"
The door burst open, startling the mares and causing two of them to scream. A mass of colors and bodies flew into the room, knocking over the curtains and vases that adorned the walls. Several shouts rose up from the heap of objects, each complaining about something.
"Hey, what fell on us?!"
"Ouch! Stop kicking me!"
"Okay, who's hoof was that?!"
"What the hay am I touching?!"
It took several minutes for the figures to pull themselves out of the mess, causing every mare to freeze in shock. The first one out was a tall cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored mane, still with a magenta curtain draped on his back and a bucket on his head. He froze as well, staring at the mares with the same expression they wore. Slowly, each of the others poked their heads out, each freezing just like the last.
"Uh oh," Dusk Shine stammered, wearing a sign that said 'Closed' on his neck.
Blitz and Elusive immediately began shaking off the various items they were wearing and smoothed their manes, trying to look presentable.
"So, come here often?" Blitz spoke, throwing a smug smile at the mares.
The mares screamed in response, each sinking into their respective bathtubs as the stallions started to scramble around, each red in the face. All except Blitz, whose ears drooped and his smile melted into a frown.
"Applejack!" came a shout, "What the hay do you think you and yer friends are doin'?!"
The orange stallion's mane stood up on end as he spun around. To his horror, his big sister, Red Gala, wore quite an angry scowl and climbed up out of the pool, utterly furious.
"RUN FOR IT!" Dusk shouted in response.
As one, each of the stallions scrambled towards the door, each shoving and pushing to get out first. A mad panic rose among them as Blitz turned tail and flew at the door, Red Gala hot on his trail. Blitz braced for impact as he slammed into the five bodies. As one, all six stallions sprawled out onto the street, each flopping around and landing in goofy ways. They each shook their heads, but froze when they heard Red Gala shout again.
"Yer all in big trouble now!" she thundered as she approached the door.
Applejack wasted no time in pushing himself upwards and bolted off, followed by Elusive, Blitz, Bubble and Dusk while Butterscotch brought up the rear. Gala tore out of the open door and kept charging after them, completely oblivious to the fact she was wet and covered in bubbles. As she ran, she slowly caught up to Butterscotch as the rest of the group ran/flew off.
"Don't leave me!" Butterscotch wailed, tears forming at the edges of his eyes.
The group of stallions simply kept going, unable to hear Butterscotch's cry over their own personal terror. As Gala caught up, she leaped into the air and pounced down of Butterscotch, pinning him to the ground. He wiggled his hooves weakly after his friends, who disappeared into a cloud of brown dust.
Whimpering pathetically, Butterscotch shivered as Gala rose behind him, expecting all sorts of bodily harm to come to him. Instead, he felt a set of teeth latch onto his tail and he began to be dragged away, back towards the spa.
"Help me!" he shouted to nopony.
The Golden Oaks Library was tightly secured. The door was latched shut in several different ways, both physically and magically. The windows had bookshelves moved in front of them and in the far corner, five stallions cowered behind a series of overturned tables and a bed. Slowly, each one poked their heads up from their makeshift shelter, terrified that there was a possibility of a red mare standing there.
"Poor Butterscotch!" Elusive wailed, tears forming at the corners of his eyes, "Why did we abandon him?!"
"B-B-Better him than u-us," Dusk stammered as he lay curled up in a ball.
"Why would you say that?!" Blitz nearly shouted, twitching at every little noise now.
"Who knows what she's doing to him?" Bubble whimpered, laying as flat on the ground as he possibly could.
Applejack nervously peek above the shelter again before replying, "Ah can think of a few things, an' they ain't pretty."
"More to drink, Spines?" Butterscotch nervously said as he extended a tray of cold drinks to the dragon.
"Oh, thank you," the baby dragon replied, taking a glass of pink lemonade.
Butterscotch's cheeks flushed as he trotted off to visit the other mares, allowing Spines to sip happily on her drink as Axe slowly filed her nails. Spines reclined on a chair, wearing an extra poofy bath robe with Thundercloud, Sugarsnap and Red Gala. The three mares and dragon each sighed happily as they nestled in. Even though the spa day had been rudely interrupted, Axe and Suave had tried to make it up to the mares by giving them all the upgraded packages for free, even though the mares insisted it wasn't their fault.
Butterscotch got off quite nicely, only having to make sure each mare had something to drink or a fresh towel. When Gala had dragged him back to the spa, he was bawling so bad, the mares each agreed he was too pathetic to get mad at. Instead of being mean, the mares asked if he could help Axe and Suave with anything. The ponies agreed and after thoroughly instructing him of how to behave around mares, allowed him to help pamper them.
Gala sighed happily as she looked at her friends, each enjoying themselves. Next week, they would get to do this all over again.