Spritelight

by Makitk


Josey 1, Chapter 7

The bathroom we were led to was just like one would have expected in a palace; marble and lavish decorations were found everywhere and gold accents were the norm rather than the exception.
The baths themselves were varied, with single-pony baths in their own rooms and multi-pony communal baths of varied shapes and designs in larger rooms.
All smaller bathrooms were connected to the main room, which held an Olympic-size swimming pool and various benches in niches in-between the entryways.
The room we ended up in held just two square bathtubs, sunk down halfway into the floor so any pony could easily step over the edges into them, and long and wide enough for them to disappear fully underwater if they felt the need to.
The room was more sparsely decorated than the main room, but still overwhelmed us as we weren't used to this kind of luxury.
The guard left us at the door, but we were greeted by a couple of mares who looked not too dissimilar from Ponyville's spa ponies Lotus Blossom and Aloe; Expertly done makeup, smartly polished hooves, well-kept manes and tails, they clearly knew how to keep themselves - and others - looking their best.
The one thing that set them aside from the spa ponies were their cutiemarks which were a bar of pink soap with a waft of fragrance seen drifting up from it on the blue pony, and a mascara-wand and an eyelash-curler on the pink mare's flank.
Rhonda seemed a little calmer among mares than she had been with the stallion around, and let the blue-maned pony with the pink coat guide her to a table where her bloodstained clothes were carefully taken from her.
The pink-maned pony with the blue coat waved a hoof toward a similar table and, following Rhonda's example, I walked over to it to undress myself as well.
Remembering Luna's warning about the sensitivity of my horn, and not knowing how to get my shirt off without touching it, I decided to start with my pants.
I hooked my thumbs over the elastic band and moved to pull the pants down in one go, but was immediately stopped by a sharp sting in my lower back before they had dropped even so much as an inch!

"Oh dear, you really should be more careful with your tail," the pony gasped, rushing to my back. She moved to use her hooves to gently help my pants down lower, all the while making sure I didn't pull more hairs out.
I felt quite embarrassed about the situation, but Rhonda saw the lighter side of things;
"I told you," she chuckled from the other end of the room, "you got to be careful with your tail, Jo."
I stuck my tongue out at her and felt my tail flick at doing so. It was a rather odd sensation, feeling muscles in my lower back contract and release that I had not felt before.
It was somewhat like the contraction of butt cheeks when making certain dance moves (hey, I played DDR in my day!), but a little higher than expected. Plus, I wasn't dancing.
I looked back at it and it flicked again. It didn't feel like I had much control of it, it was just moving on its own accord.
The pink-maned pony cut into my thoughts, leaning into my field of vision while looking up at me. "Your shirt, miss?"
I sighed and looked up at my horn. "I dunno if that's wise.."
"If you tilt your head down, miss, your horn will point toward the ground and you could let gravity do the rest?", she offered, and I felt a blush creep on my cheeks. I should have come up with that idea myself, but this whole situation had my brain quite occupied already.
"Ah, thanks," I managed to mutter out, starting to slip my arms out of the shirt's sleeves to bundle it up around my neck for the great escape trick to follow.
Lowering my head, I glanced sideways toward the pony standing ready to help in case I needed it. "I didn't quite catch your name, miss?"

"It's Cherry, miss," the pink pony offered, gently helping me slide my shirt up over my head.
Once it slipped passed my ears, we both let go at the same time and the shirt just dropped down to the floor without touching my horn even once.
"Cherry?", I asked, lifting my head again and pulling my hands up to cover my chest even while I was wearing a bra.
"Yes miss," Cherry answered, moving in to fold my shirt up neatly. "It's short for Cherry Blossom."
"And your.. coworker?", I continued, looking over to the blue pony who was helping a naked Rhonda into one of the bathtubs.
"Sister, miss," Cherry corrected me, putting my folded shirt away. "Her name's Magnolia. May I please have the rest of your clothing?"
I obliged with the pony's request, slipping out of my underwear and handing them over. They joined the pile of clothes already folded and the pink pony motioned toward the unoccupied tub.
I looked over towards Rhonda as I approached, and she looked up with one of her eyes a fair amount larger than the other. I frowned at it a little as I put my foot into the bath, but as soon as the warm water slipped up around my leg, I stopped caring about what other changes my girlfriend was going through. They could wait. This was bliss.
I let out a happy sigh as I climbed in the tub properly and sank down into the water until it came up to my neck, feeling the warm tingles going over my skin. When was the last time I had a proper bath? Several years ago at least.. we only had a shower at our place, and we had lost contact with the uncle and aunt who did have a bath. My last bath must've been in their place.

I slowly sank further down in the water, immersing my head in the warm liquid while the world around me muted. When my horn finally broke the surface and slipped down, I felt the water flow around it as if it had been an arm or a leg, but about twice as sensitive.
It made me moan in pleasure, air escaping me in a long stream of bubbles, which forced me up again to get my air back.
Rhonda sounded like she was making small-talk with the pony caring for her, but my ear was filled up with water and I couldn't quite make out what she was saying. It was all a muted buzzing that made little or no sense to me.
Another voice spoke up, but on my other side, and I turned my head towards Cherry. "Huh? I didn't quite.. my ears are full of water," I explained, and she shook her head at me.
Why would she say no? It's like she. Oh! Right! I shook my head quickly, feeling the air whish around my horn, but also feeling the water break out of my ears, restoring my hearing again.
Cherry's head ducked down as my horn passed over her, but she smiled up weakly again once I stopped shaking my head.
"..and then he put down a portal in the middle of the room," Rhonda explained to Magnolia, and I nodded to myself.
It was good for her to be able to talk to somepony about this, even if it was a pony who would forget about it all moments after we'd leave out of sheer respect for their clients' privacy. Or so I would guess. I never worked in a spa myself, after all.
"Thank you, Cherry," I offered to the pony beside me, and watched as she approached with a soft brush in her mouth.
She put it down on the edge of the tub and smiled up at me. "Until you get your ears, miss, you won't be able to flick them to get the water out. Shall I brush your mane, miss?"
I smirked at her first statement, reaching up with a hand to feel over my human ears. Of course they would change at some point as well. And, looking at Cherry's ears, they would probably move a little up as well.
I sank down in the water to allow the pink pony to reach for my hair without having to stretch herself too much, and closed my eyes as I felt the brush make contact with the back of my head. I knew she was holding it in her mouth, but her brush strokes were gentle and expertly weaved through my hair.
The brush strokes, the warm water, and Rhonda's voice babbling on to my left all helped soothe my worried mind and I ended up drifting on a cloud of contentment.

I don't know how long I was subject to this wonderful feeling, but I woke with a shock when Rhonda let out a shriek!
"Something's wrong! Oh nononono.. what's going on?", she cried out, and I pushed up in a sitting position in my own tub to look her way.
"What's happening, RhoRho?", I asked, reaching out towards her with my left hand, but blinking as she turned her face towards me.
Besides the shock and horror at whatever was happening that she had shrieked at, there were two large eyes on her face that didn't look to fit on it. They were pony eyes. Proper pony eyes, the pupils currently small from her rising fear, which only helped to make the whites of her eyes look that much bigger on her changing face.
"I can't feel my legs anymore!", Rhonda whined, looking between me and the tub before splashing her face down into the water to look at her limbs.
I stared at her strange behavior until she came up again with water flowing past her blinking pony eyes. "They're changing," she sniffled, reaching up to rub at her eyes with hands that looked comically small in comparison.
"Can you lift one up, sweety?", I asked, casting a glance down at my own legs but they were as I expected them to be. 100% Human.
Rhonda bit her lower lip, then slipped down a little in the water so she could pull her right leg up.
I stared at it as it changed in front of my eyes; the toes started to merge together, forming a hoof, her foot grew in size while her lower leg seemed to shrink, her former ankle-joint rising up closer to her knee as it did.
Soon enough she had two fully formed pony legs attached to her hips. There wasn't any fur growing on them yet however, and it only made them look more alien from the human limbs they had once been.
"You're not feeling any of that?", I asked of Rhonda, and she shook her head.
I reached up for my horn and dared to finally touch it, letting out a sigh. She went numb, while I got hurt. Life was so unfair!

"Josey, how am I supposed to walk with these?", Rhonda whimpered, and I shook my head softly.
"We'll work it out together, ok?", I offered, reaching out with my left hand again until she put her right in it and then squeezed it. "But at some point we'll have to get used to walking on all fours."
Rhonda sighed at that and looked down at our joined hands. "I guess."
I looked past Rhonda to see Magnolia stand beside her tub, her tail flicking nervously behind her. It made me wonder about the other one and I looked around the room until I spotted Cherry Blossom walk back in from the door leading outside.
"Hey, I think your sister's a little overwhelmed," I started, and Cherry nodded to me as she moved towards Magnolia to give her a soft nuzzle and whisper something in her ear. Whatever was said, it visibly relaxed the blue pony, and she moved over to a table to get a brush not unlike the one her sister had used on my mane before.
I squeezed Rhonda's hand again and smiled at her. "Whatever changes, my love for you will remain. You'll never lose me. I promise."
Rhonda smiled weakly at that and nodded. "I know.. thank you."
I let go of her hand as Magnolia moved in with the brush and sank back in the tub I was in since Rhonda was no longer in a state of panic.
As Cherry joined me again, I looked up at her with a concerned frown on my face and motioned towards my eyes. "Did they change yet?"
The pink pony nodded slowly at that. "One is almost fully changed, the other looks to be halfway there."
I nodded back at that and sank down further in the bath again. I had not even noticed anything changing in my perception. I looked through one eye, then the other, then the first again, and slowly it dawned on me.
While my eyes had been growing, giving me a slowly increasing field of vision, the process had been so gradual that my mind would have automatically corrected anything that would have otherwise led to me noticing it. I just accepted it because by the time I noticed the changes, my brain had already accepted them as default.
I would have facepalmed if I did not have my horn there..