//------------------------------// // 37 // Story: Twilights Mane Passion // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// “So there’s a chance Barb might mentally outpace her body?” Twilight asked still wondering if she might have done something irreversibly harmful to her daughter. She and Cheerilee were currently on their way to Bonbon’s house. “I thought most dragons weren’t very well developed mentally if at all, I guess raising her as a pony might have some other consequences like her not getting along with other dragons. Then again dragons don’t normally get along with each other anyway unless it involves mating season and magic dragons are completely different from normal dragons to begin with.” “Well it is possible. I can tell you’re a good pony and a great mother to worry this much about it.” Cheerilee had never met a pony so young that sounded so devoted to their child; they had been discussing the psychological as well as physical issues Barb may face in the future. “I believe we’re at Bonbon’s house Twilight.” “What already? My how time flies when you’re discussing the future of your child with a new friend, I hope that you’ll help me out if I have any problems with her?” Twilight was happy to talk about all kinds of subjects that Cheerilee could readily understand. As a teacher she was well educated in all things dealing with foals, fillies and colts. “I also want to thank you for listening to all my worries so far Cheery.” “No problem at all Twilight, it is kind of my business to help parents while helping their children grow.” Cheerilee wanted to learn more about Twilight Sparkle, she had learned a lot about Barb the daughter of Twilight Sparkle so far. Twilight walked up to the door and hit it several times with her right hoof. She turned to Cheerilee as she heard a vocal response from Bonbon that she would be a minute before she could open the door. It sounded like Bonbon was busy with something. “So you’ve lived in Ponyville for most of your life. Do you know Bonbon and is there a reason why Bonbon’s voice sounds so odd? It’s rather strange how it fluctuates at times when I met her.” Twilight kind of thought it odd that Bonbon could have a normal sounding voice one second and the next it was different entirely. She and Bonbon had talked about when her trim and styling would take place. Twilight was happy to come over to her house and exclaimed a day she’d have time for it and Bonbon agreed to that day. “Yes I know her. It’s not Dysphonia if that’s what you’re thinking, though it is a bit of an odd quirk that makes her incapable of singing normally. Dancing on the other hoof is not a problem for her and she’s really good at that. Never forget that every pony has their strengths and weaknesses Twilight.” Cheerilee decided to broach the subject of Twilight herself. “Speaking of which Ms. Sparkle, I’ve learned a lot about your daughter but what of you and you’re home life? How was it for you going to a premier school of Celestia’s? I want to know how well your parents took to suddenly having granddaughter little earlier than normal.” “It was interesting growing up Cheery. My parents are the friendliest and most open ponies I know. Then again they’d have to be with all the weird stuff that goes on around us Sparkles', having a dragon for a granddaughter didn’t bother them at all. I thought it would have and that they’d disown me for having a child out of wedlock. Looking back on it I was being a silly filly by trying to pretend Barb was my little sister.” Twilight smiled a little and stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth in a silly smile. “Celestia’s school was good for teaching unicorns all kinds of magic and I’m generally good in all of them and that’s what my special talent is, just being good at magic. I might be powerful but I will hardly ever master a field unless I put enough focus into it, though I’ve pretty much mastered enchanting since I got a doctorate in it. Her school might be good at teaching gifted unicorns, but it’s not a good place to make friends and that’s why I moved here.” “The art of emplacing magical effects onto objects, it sounds useful.” Cheerilee didn’t know many enchanted objects as that was more of a thing to appear in Canterlot than in Ponyville. “Not as much as you would think, it’s really a hassle to even enchant one object to do more than one thing at a time. Enchantments require a lot of energy to function even if on a small scale.” Twilight knew Smart was the epitome of her enchanting skills and her toy barely absorbed enough energy to use all of her functions at once or even constantly. If Smart didn’t have the capacity to hold onto excess amounts of energy she wouldn’t even be able to levitate small objects or even use the most basic of light spells. After a moment the door swung open and Cheerilee saw a blush appear on Twilight’s face as she took in Bonbon’s appearance. She wondered why Twilight was blushing like that and why were her eyes trailing across Bonbon like that? Looking to Bonbon herself she could see she hasn’t had her mane cut in a while. “Hello again Twilight, I guess it’s about time for you to give me that trim I asked for huh?” Bonbon shifted a length of her mane out of her face and noticed the local teacher and old friend standing with her hair styling appointment. Bonbon’s voice seemed to change every once in a while mid speech. “Oh hey there Cheer, are you here with Twilight? Come on in and make yourselves at home.” Twilight watched as a few inches of Bonbon’s mane and tail dragged along the floor, she was almost like Fluttershy in the way her mane was kept so long. The rose pink that faded into somewhat dark blue portion of her mane that was in front of eyes was a rather nice and evenly colored as it trailed its way to the floor. It seemed like the rose pink was just a highlighted the middle portion in her tail whereas it was half the color that hung in front of her face. “So what did you need me to do with your mane and tail aside from trimming them?” Twilight was ready to get started with her job; she should have probably brought a bucket. “I want to wash, brush and comb you’re hair out too, but how I style it is up to you really.” “I want two curled separate bangs resting on my forehead, two large curls lying at both sides of my withers that can uncoil to a bit past my knees and three different small curls in my tail. I’ll try to define it better after we get to that part. So how are we washing my mane and tail?” Bonbon liked how inexpensive Twilight made her services out to be. She really hoped this unicorn was good at what she does and can give her the style that she wanted. “We can use your bathroom if you don’t mind, hold on a second. Do you want to watch me work with Bonbon or are you going to sit down and read a book or do something to busy yourself while you wait Cheery?” Twilight really needed to work out how these house calls were going to work from now on. So far she was excited as this was her first one and she couldn’t wait to get started on Bonbon’s mane and tail. “I would like you to stick around and tell me how I did with Bonbon’s hair when I’m done and your opinion would really go a long way to helping me earn more business.” “Bonbon, would you mind if I made some tea for myself and used your stuff?” Cheerilee had to ask as this was her home and the teacher wouldn’t want to impose on an old friend. “I’ll stick around Twilight and I’ll be glad to judge how well you did with Bonbon.” “Of course I don’t mind Cheer, just don’t eat any of the candy in this house and don’t abuse my stuff and we’ll be fine. Now come on Twilight, you certainly look ready to help me with my mane.” In fact if Bonbon wasn’t sure about it, she thought Twilight might have seemed a bit too eager. It was probably her imagination as she entered the bathroom with the large wide mirror. “I hope you don’t mind but first we’ll do your tail and I’ll get a feel for what you want me to do from styling it. Now sit here please, so how short do you want your tail.” Twilight had her sit at the edge of the bath tub and got a bucket to fill with lukewarm water, once she started filling it up Twilight got Tress’s special shampoo out from her saddle bags. “What kind of smell is that shampoo?” Bonbon asked as she was curious what was going to be used on her mane and tail. “No smell in particular. Here take a whiff of it.” Twilight levitated the open bottles cap underneath Bonbon’s nose and she inhaled and smelled exactly nothing which confused her. “My friend made this shampoo to have no smell at all and it’ll strengthen the smell of the shampoo that was previously used by you. This shampoo is something she can produce cheaply and in vast quantities to help prolong the effects of your favorite shampoo’s smell. She wouldn’t let me even use it unless she’s thoroughly tested this stuff on herself. I tested this a lot for a few months to make sure it was safe as my friend has some rather unique attributes for an earth pony.” “That actually sounds pretty ingenious and since it’s cheaper to make she wouldn’t have to worry about having to buy much more expensive shampoos.” Bonbon admitted that it sounded like good prospect and she was a mare who knew business running her own candy shop. One that is usually frequented by Pinkie Pie for party snacks sometimes, her chocolate covered pretzels were still selling very well. “My friend could probably make those more expensive shampoos from scratch; she usually likes to make what works for her. Not to say she doesn’t spend a lot of time innovating some pretty weird stuff. For instance I never knew you could make a pony smell like a chocolate ice cream cone with the waffle cones smell included.” As she said this, Twilight levitated the water out of the bucket she filled and magically ran the liquid through Bonbon’s tail dampening it. She saw Bonbon shudder slightly at the feeling and she even smiled a little. “That felt kind of funny and the ice cream thing sounds weird.” A blush ran through Bonbon's cheeks at the feeling of the warm water after it had passed over her tail. “Not a bad kind of funny either.” “I’m trying a method as to not make this messy, now if you don’t mind I need to apply the shampoo if that’s okay with you.” After Twilight got Bonbon to assent, she floated the shampoo bottle and squeezed a bit out of it into her magical field. She started to work it into Bonbon’s tail starting from the base and working outward. A smell of sugar and strawberries started becoming pronounced on Bonbon’s tail. “Strawberries and cream shampoo? That’s an interesting choice.” “I just really like sugary smells. That’s the closest I can get to smelling like taffy without getting my mane all sticky.” Bonbon actually liked the rapport she was building with Twilight and the feeling of the goop she was working through her tail hair. “I’m sure my friend can mix you up whatever smell you like best and she has been pretty good about making just about any kind of smell you could imagine into shampoo. She once even smelled like grapes; I don’t even know how she did that without even staining her mane slightly and it smelled so great.” Twilight once again swept a globe of water through Bonbon’s tail cleaning it of the substance that had no smell. “Now how much do you want me to trim off after I’m done combing and brushing it? I really need to know where to start.” “I would like that. If you could introduce your friend to me sometime I’d appreciate it and would like the challenge of stumping her. Trim my tail where it meets the floor and trim the blue sections a bit shorter than the pink one.” After a few minutes of watching Twilight brushing and combing her tail and feeling a particularly red in the face, Bonbon watched the unicorn calmly levitate the scissors to deftly trim her tail. Bonbon nodded at how much Twilight had cut off. “Good, stop there. Maybe trim a little more of the blue, no trim a little less than that… yes that much. Now curl my blue lengths equally and curl my pink section but it still has to be slightly longer than the rest.” Twilight focused her magic towards the fourth spell she had ever learned and focused it into curling the tips of the Bonbon’s tail. Bonbon worked her through the effort of how she wanted it curled and seemed very particular about it. “You know, you’re really good at this are you sure this isn’t your special talent?” Bonbon swished her tail and was pleased to how it felt as it swayed through the air. “Now let’s do my mane.” Well so far things didn’t seem to be going as badly as Twilight thought they would be, she was actually expecting to be attacked at any moment by some kind of force that just wanted to ruin her day.