The work was finished and they got a nice bonus since the Apple family was making a lot more money on getting a full zap apple harvest in. A basket full of zap apples to eat, a jar of zap apple jam, a hundred bits and being called an honorary family member was not a bad thing for a hard day’s work. Applejack liked them and because of that they made friends with the entire family.
In all it had been a rather tiring day for Tress and Twilight, who were making their way home. It was no surprise that Applejack and Big Mac were starting in on harvesting a few regular apples as they left; they were like well oiled machines.
“Well that wasn’t too bad for a day of hard work.” Despite this Twilight let out of a tired huff, she was tired beyond all reason and looking behind her she could see Tress munching on another zap apple from the basket they were bringing with them. They promised they’d return the basket and jar when they were finished with them.
“Yeah and these apples are really good too.” Tress walked along smiling, the apples were rather strangely delectable to her. She still couldn’t understand what Twilight or Applejack meant about them being shocking on their first bite.
“Tress, don’t overdo it on eating those.” Seeing that she got through to her friend, Twilight continued onward to the house.
“Fine, but still one a day of those things may even keep two doctors away.” This only got Tress a worried look from Twilight.
“Or you might need a hospital visit with how many of those things you’ve had before we left.” How could the mare eat ten of them in total thus far without a single flinch? Twilight was pretty sure something was up with Tress and her sudden taste for zap apples, but so far nothing bad had come of it.
Tress walked up to the front door of the house and knocked on it; Zecora opened it up and let them in. The zebra took a keen interest in the zap apples.
“Are those what I think they are before my eyes, those zap apples have my interest on the rise. If it is not too much to ask, can I try one and maybe distill some in a flask?” This was a first for Zecora, since she had never had the chance to study zap apples before.
“Yes, but watch that first bite, it’s quite shocking. We got a basket full of them and some jam for doing a good job.” Twilight wondered how well they’d do on their next job. She quickly realized that she and Tress both needed baths badly, especially from the way Zecora reacted when she sniffed the air around them.
“Among you two I smell sweat and toil; you both need a hot bath possibly with the water close to boil.” The zebra was enjoying her time here in her friend’s house; she’d only be staying a few more days at the most before heading back to her home in the forest. Taking a zap apple from the basket Zecora sniffed it a bit. With a bite that caused her Mohawk to spread out slightly, she smiled at the taste. “That is quite an interesting kick, it certainly does a neat trick.”
“I’m hitting the bath first Twilight, you go have a talk with Barb. you really haven’t spent too much time with her in the last two days. I’ll make sure to save some warm water for you.” Tress was immediately off and ready to wash off the smell of a hard day of work. She made sure to first store away the zap apples and the jar of jam.
Taking the band out of her hair, her mane swiftly fell back into place as Tress flicked her head back and forth to make sure it settled just right while looking at herself in the mirror. After that she started running some bath water while pulling out her own personal shampoo and body wash. She made this stuff with her own hooves and it was her own particular brand that smelled faintly of blueberries, she didn’t stick to one particular smell all the time and she liked to mix it up once in a while. Twilight tended to notice whenever she did and would usually ask about it.
Stepping out of the bath feeling quite refreshed, Tress quickly brushed out her mane while calling for Twilight to take to the tub next. After Twilight finished her bath, getting rid of the soreness she felt throughout her body, it was soon time for a simple late dinner.
Dinner had been made by a combination of Tress and Zecora working together and it was simply a lot of tossed salad with an alchemically made dressing that tasted rather good, along with this was lots of bread slathered with melted cheese. Everything after that turned into a quiet affair for the four of beings living in the house as they were all off doing their own personal things before heading to bed.
Zecora was playing some with chemicals, some bubbled and others fizzed but they were mostly non volatile stuff. Tress personally sat in a corner reading a Daring Do book; it was an epic story with plenty of adventure and not to mention a good look into some of what went on in griffon culture. Barb was looking to be halfway into a comic book with Smart sitting on her left shoulder reading along emphasizing the action dramatically going on in the pages out loud. Twilight herself was reading another Mane Fancy magazine with a slight blush adorning her cheeks.
Before long they were brushing their teeth together and then they all slowly started heading their separate ways for their own bedrooms.
“What a day, right Tress?” Twilight was ready to fall into a nice peaceful sleep after all the grueling work.
“You said it, makes me wonder what we’ll get up to tomorrow.” Tress yawned and made for her own room.
Twilight shrugged as she marched straight towards the bed, she physically pulled the purple blanket with her cutie mark on it aside with a hoof instead of using her currently abused horn. Twilight slid calmly into bed and quickly fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
The next day…
Twilight woke up and yawned; she stretched out and felt great getting out of bed. She felt like today was going to be a great day. The sun was shining and things outside looked more vibrant than usual. Tress was even greeting her as she walked into the living room from a bath she didn’t remember taking.
“Hey Twilight, isn’t everything so great today? Look at all the happy birds, oh and maybe I’ll get a cat like Opal, Fluttershy is finding ponies to take some of the animals off her hooves as pets.” Okay now Twilight knew something was wrong, there was no way Tress could be this perky especially after yesterday. Twilight walked around the couch and wondered if it was because of the zap apples she ate.
“Are you feeling alright Tress, you’re a lot perkier than normal.” Her friend just continued to stare at her with a beaming smile that Twilight felt was entirely off. There wasn’t something right here, everything felt a bit… strange.
“Of course I’m fine. I’m feeling just quite dandy today. Besides we’ve got a few ponies who’d like you to do their manes waiting in the kitchen. I’m working on some new shampoo at the moment, I’m sure you can take care of things yourself.” Tress then trotted off with a skip in her step.
Walking into the kitchen Twilight couldn’t help but feel very weird about how Tress was acting, in the kitchen she saw Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack sitting at the table chatting merrily and they all stopped once Twilight walked in.
“Hello there Twilight darling, it’s so good of you to finally join us on this rather sunny morning.” Rarity smiled at her and then touched the curled part of her mane causing it to bounce. “We all just came over to have you work with our manes. You know, help out with your business and stuff.”
“Well thank you, but are you sure all of you want me to do this?” They all nodded to Twilight who still felt something was badly off about this situation. Everything looked perfectly fine though, well as far as she could tell and that’s why the situation seemed so upsetting to her sensibilities. “How early did you exactly wake up to get here Fluttershy? Also when did you meet Applejack?”
“Oh… um… I’ve met Applejack as she’s kind of my next door neighbor. We introduced ourselves to each other recently and Rarity came here with us when she found out we were coming to see you. It isn’t that early Twilight; it’s about nine now so you must have slept in from all the work you did yesterday. You must have been so tired. I’ve already taken care of all my animals today if you were wondering.” Fluttershy looked normal; Applejack looked normal and even Rarity looked perfectly fine. Something was most definitely not fine with what Fluttershy just said, though Twilight wasn’t about to call her out on it just yet though.
“So where do you plan to do all your work dear? Certainly not here in the kitchen I hope.” Well Rarity did have a point; Twilight would have to look into it later once she could figure out what she felt was wrong with everything and why Fluttershy would be lying to her.
“No I’ll take each of you one at a time in the bathroom, so who goes first.” Fluttershy immediately raised her hoof in an excited manner; Twilight’s suspicions only grew from there. There was no way Fluttershy was this forward or neglectful if she was right about something being horribly wrong here.
“Okay if you will follow me Fluttershy.” Twilight led Fluttershy up to the bathroom. “What exactly did you want me to do with your mane since you’re paying me for a job I haven’t been getting much acknowledgment in doing?”
“Well… I thought you could comb and brush my mane like you always do, maybe you could also wash it?” Fluttershy looked so innocent it was almost hard for Twilight to be suspicious of her nature.
“Well alright then. Let’s just wet your mane with the overhead shower, I really should see some contractors about getting a small salon area added on to the house.” Twilight made a mental note to actually do this when she figured out what was up with everything going on around her. She carefully leaned Fluttershy back so that half her body was hanging over the tub and her beautiful long flowing straight silken pink mane was pooling slightly in the big basin. “Now close your eyes.”
Turning on the shower head, Twilight got Fluttershy’s mane slightly damp with a light spray of water before she shut it off and the shy mare cooed slightly at the feeling. Twilight actually felt the water, but still wasn’t sure about things.
“What kind of smell would you like for your mane and tail Fluttershy?” Well this was a good way to test the waters of what was wrong, that is if Twilight wasn’t just being ridiculously paranoid.
“I like my mane to smell of flowers please, any kind will do. Maybe you have the bed of flowers special?” Well that is something That Fluttershy would be expected to say, if this was in fact Fluttershy.
Twilight continued to run her hooves through Fluttershy’s mane before levitating a shampoo bottle to her. She didn’t bother to read the label and just started to lather what looked like her friends mane, everything that was going on around her was highly suspect since she woke up. She liked the feel and weight of Fluttershy’s beautiful mane and if she weren’t so wary of her surroundings she might have even bothered to enjoy this.
After she finished lathering up Fluttershy, she levitated her so the shower head would rinse the full length of her wondrous mane. After that she set Fluttershy down so that her rear end was sitting over the tub and her tail was now the thing pooling in it.
After performing the same actions for her tail, Twilight went to grab a comb and brush. She got some scissors as well, but she laid the shears aside nearby for a moment and made a good mental note of where they were. Walking up to Fluttershy she noted that her mane covered her right eye and that she was now looking at her with a faint seductive smile, it was a bit creepy to Twilight that she found this attractive.
“So do you want me to just comb and brush you Fluttershy or did you want me to do something else for you.” Twilight felt very weird, as if the look of wanting in Fluttershy’s eyes was abnormal beyond all recognition.
“Oh my yes, I want you to not struggle when our mistress starts to take over. If you don’t mind us taking over that is.” Fluttershy’s mane stretched out and wrapped around Twilight’s front left hoof before she could react to it.
Twilight quickly levitated the scissors, swung them around and cut off a massive amount of hair from Fluttershy’s mane with a single quick swipe. The mass of beautiful hair fell to the floor limply freeing up her hoof and now Twilight could see her friends other eye; Fluttershy’s right eye was green with a red pupil.
“Oh my, mistress Mane-iac isn’t going to be pleased that you found out so soon. Don’t worry though, once she gets her mind control serum into you as well, we’ll all have you to help look after our manes.” Now Fluttershy’s other eye turned green and red and she chuckled darkly as her mane grew back to its original length almost immediately, she started to slowly approach. “You know I don’t like scissors Twilight, you made me very sad when you just cut my mane short like that. Now please put those away and join our mistress, she would like having you at her side. So don’t resist and maybe I’ll even give you a kiss.”