The World is Filled with Monsters

by Cold in Gardez

Act II: Pawns and Symbols, part 1

Everfree hadn’t changed much in their time away. They made it back to the capitol well within Luna’s end-of-week deadline, and their first stop was the apartment in Osage to drop off their gear before heading to one of the city’s public baths for a long-overdue soak.

Public baths were a pegasus invention, perfected in their cloud cities and enjoyed by citizens of all ranks. It was the one place in their society where warriors, craftsmares, servants and senators could all mingle without any pretense, gathering together for the simple pleasure of soaking in scalding water until their skin turned pink beneath their coats and their wings became waterlogged sponges. That, of course, led directly to hours spend re-oiling their wings, a more intimate affairs usually accomplished only among close friends, family or lovers.

After the Pact had been signed, and the three tribes gathered in Everfree, the pegasi brought the baths with them, and the unicorns quickly adopted the tradition as their own. Geothermal and magically heated baths became a common sight across Everfree and Equestria’s other major cities, quickly accruing a reputation for sophistication, worldliness and refinement.

In other words, nothing to do with earth ponies. Vermilion balked at the group’s plan.

“I bathed in Maplebridge,” he said. “I’m fine.”

“Okay, first, that was three days ago,” Cloud Fire said. The mares were already out the door waiting for them. “We’ve walked across half of Equestria since then. Second, you’re covered in dust from the road—”

“I’ll clean up here. There’s a cistern out back.”

“Covered in dust,” Cloud Fire continued without pause. He flicked Vermilion’s shoulder with a wingtip, raising a puff of dust. “And third, the point of the baths isn’t just to get clean. It’s to relax and bond with your friends. You know, enjoy yourself a bit? Build morale? That thing Canopy was always worried about?”

Canopy – that was the magic word. He wanted to frown at Cloudy for bringing her up, but he was right. Canopy, or rather her sergeants, had always taken steps to build esprit d’corps, which usually meant getting drunk and rowdy together.

He tried a different tack. “Do they even let earth ponies in the baths?”

“As long as they behave themselves. Think you can handle that?”

Vermilion frowned. “I’m not a foal.”

“Great, you meet all the requirements for doing normal adult things. Do you have fifty bits?”

“Uh.” A quick search through his saddlebags found more than enough. “That seems like a lot. This better be a really nice place.”

* * *

It turned out the fifty bits was to pay for their entire group. Apparently, as their leader, he was expected to spring for little indulgences like this from time to time. It was why he got paid more. Assuming, of course, that they actually got paid for their efforts – despite Luna’s promises, they hadn’t received a promissory note for their service just yet. Vermilion could only assume that, as one of the Equestrian diarchs, Luna was good for the money. Otherwise he’d burn through his savings in fairly short order. He wondered if there was some etiquette for asking one’s princess for money, and decided the question could wait.

The bathhouse was like most others in Everfree, located near the center of the district it served and marked with subdued, tasteful signage including a stylized image of steam rising from a bowl of water, a symbol universally understood even by the masses of illiterate earth ponies and pegasi. Urns overflowing with potted bamboo surrounded the arched entrance, where Zephyr, Rose and Quicklime were waiting for them. They stood by the side of the double-doored entrance, letting other customers pass while they chatted to pass the time. Zephyr saw them first, and trotted out to meet them.

“Took your time, huh?” she said. Turning to Vermilion, then: “You bring the bits?”

“Uh, yeah. Enough for all of us.” With every moment this was seeming less like a pleasant excursion and more like a coordinated shakedown.

“Great. Gods, it’s been too long since I’ve done this.” She skipped back to Quicklime and Rose, her wings flapping to provide a bit of extra hop to her steps. Soon enough she’d be flying again, he suspected.

A cornflower blue pegasus mare greeted them inside the arched doorway. Her left foreleg was malformed, shrivelled beneath the her elbow into a useless remnant, the result of a birth defect or mutilating injury. Still, she seemed to get around just fine without it, and she held open the beaded curtain strung across the entryway for them.

A wave of soggy heat slapped them in the face as they entered. Vermilion could feel the hairs in his mane growing limp and wet already. The tiles beneath his hooves were slick with moisture, and special grooves ran the length of the hall to capture the excess water and channel it into drains set alongside the walls. A constant burble of running water and muted conversation seemed to fill the building as they walked deeper inside.

“So how does this work?” Vermilion asked. They reached what seemed to be a changing room, with lockers on the wall. Another pegasus attendant waited near the far door. His left wing was missing; only a stump of bone covered in tight skin protruded from his side. Vermilion stared for a moment before tearing his eyes away.

“Drop your saddlebags off in an empty locker, then pay the nice stallion over there. He’ll give you a towel,” Cloudy said. “That’s it.”

Oh. Seemed simple enough. Vermilion and Quicklime were the only ones with saddlebags, and after they deposited them Vermilion forked over his bits to the stallion, who gave them each a fluffy white towel. Rose was the last, and she stopped to hold some whispered conversation with the attendant. Whatever it was about was resolved in just a few seconds, and Rose quickly caught up with them. She ignored Vermilion’s confused look, and nopony else seemed to notice.

“Great, we’ll see you later. Make sure he gets clean, okay?” Cloud Fire said. Without waiting for a response, he jumped into the air, wings beating, and flew straight up to a second-floor balcony. Zephyr grumbled something under her breath and trotted after him up the stairs.

“Uh.” Vermilion took a half a step after them. “Where are they going?”

“Frigidarium, probably,” Quicklime said. “Pegasi like to hang out in the cold-water baths. C’mon, hot water’s this way.”

He followed behind Quicklime, with Rose bringing up the rear. They went through a shower first, and a hoof-washing station, followed by another shower, and then they reached the public bath.

It was bigger than Vermilion expected. A vast indoor hall opened before them, all lined in tile and marble and other polished stones. Crawling vines exploded from planters set at even intervals in the walls, and high windows let in golden rays of afternoon sunlight. But what caught his attention was the enormous pool that filled most of the room, nearly two dozen feet across and twice as long. Ponies lounged along the edges like flowers on the margin of a pond, some sitting with just their hooves in the water, others perched on submerged benches that left only their necks and heads dry. Almost all were pegasi or unicorns, though here and there Vermilion spotted the duller, muted colors of an earth pony amidst the nobility. They all seemed at ease, chatting quietly or simply reclining with closed eyes. A cloud of faint mist hovered above the pool, swirling occasionally as pegasi caressed it with their wings.

Quicklime and Rose trotted to the edge of the pool without hesitation. They found an empty spot with space for a few ponies and stepped slowly into the water, setting one hoof in at a time and then carefully lowering their bodies onto the stone benches set into the rim of the pool. Quicklime had to sit up to keep her head above water – Rose was able to lie on her belly and achieve the same feat.

Vermilion stuck a hoof in the water and just as quickly jerked it back out with a gasp. It was far hotter than he expected, enough to sting his skin beneath the coat. Around him a few ponies snickered.

Quicklime rolled her eyes. “Just go slow, you’ll get used to it.”

“It’s scalding!” he hissed.

“No it isn’t, you big baby. Get in.”

Celestia. He put his hoof back in and deliberately held it beneath the water. It started to hurt after a second, the sensation of extreme heat replaced by an almost chilly, painful sting, and eventually that faded away. He repeated the motion with his other three legs, then slowly sank the rest of the way into the water. The stone bench felt cooler against his belly, and he settled onto it with a minimum of grumbling.

“Okay.” He let out a long breath. “How long do we stay like this?”

“No more than a half hour,” Quicklime said. “I think? Is that the rule for stallions, Rose?”

“Thirty minutes for stallions, one hour for mares,” Rose said. “Unless you feel your heart rate start to elevate, in which case you should get out immediately and lie down. Also if you think you’re going to be sick. The attendants come by periodically with glasses of cold water, make sure you get one.”

“We paid money to do this? Also, why only half an hour for stallions?”

“Hot water can damage your testicles. Now, try to save your breath, Vermilion,” Rose said. Her eye was closed, and she’d tied the ends of the ribbon covering her other eye in a bow behind her mane to keep them from dangling in the water. “It’ll help you relax. Or at least stop bothering us.”

What was it Cloudy had said about her? Pine cone up her ass? Also, hot water could do that? Vermilion resisted the urge to leap from the pool and save his sensitive anatomy before it was too late.

Quicklime was no more interested in being quiet than normal. She scooted across the bench to crowd in against Vermilion. “So, what’s Luna gonna have us do next?”

Vermilion looked around. The nearest ponies were just a few feet away, but they showed no interest in the conversation. In fact, the one rule of the bath seemed to be to ignore your fellow patrons unless they expressed an interest in talking. Still, he kept his voice low as he answered, just for the three of them.

“I don’t know. But first, we all need to talk with her. Cloudy and I were only able to fight the dreamoras because we had her touch. We were marked by her. You and Rose and Zephyr need that too.”

“You think we’ll be fighting more dreamoras?” Rose asked. Her head rested against the edge of the pool and her eye was closed, but her ears were up and pointed in his direction.

“I doubt it, but do you really want to take that chance?”

She grunted. “Fair enough.”

“She marked you?” Quicklime stared at him with wide eyes. “Did she… brand you?!”

“What? No.” He shook his head, sending ripples of water out across the pool. “We just… well, we just met with her and agreed to serve her. That’s it.”

“Oh.” A little frown appeared on her lips. “That’s it? Nothing like, you know… nothing sexy?”

Rose snorted. “Really, Quicklime?”

Vermilion responded first. “No, we just stood there and said we’d serve her. Seriously, why would you even think that?”

“Well, you know.” Quicklime shrugged. “There’s stories about her.”

Vermilion opened his mouth to answer, then closed it. He thought back to his meetings with Luna, her wing of the palace, and some of the artwork decorating it. He remembered the rumors and stories about the dark princess, who had lovers but never friends.

“Look, she’s… a little different from other ponies,” he said. “I think she just has a different perspective than most of us. It can be a bit unsettling at first.”

“Like how?” Quicklime peered at him.

“Well, uh.” Vermilion tried to condense all the strangeness and agelessness and weird alienness of his encounters with Luna into a single thought. “She has fangs.”

“Whoa!” Quicklime paddled closer, until she pressed up against his side. “How big were they?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t measure them.” He paused. “Not very big.”

“So we meet her and agree to serve her, and then what?” Rose asked.

“Well, there’s a map, and… Look, it’ll make more sense when you see it. But she needs us for something here in Everfree first. Some kind of political thing with Celestia.”

Rose cracked her eye open to peer at him. “Political thing with Celestia? Are we part of a coup, Vermilion?”

“No, it sounded more like a, uh, family thing. I think they get into fights like any other siblings, and those fights spill over into the Day and Night courts. We probably just have to stand around and look like we’re special or something.”

Quicklime inhaled a quick little gasp. “Do you think we’re getting medals, Cherry?”

“Luna doesn’t really strike me like the kind of princess to give out medals,” he said. As Quicklime’s ears began to wilt, he quickly added, “But, uh, maybe?”

They lapsed into a brief silence as a pegasus attendant came by, exchanging their old towels (by now soggy with condensed mist) for new ones and offering glasses of cool water from a tray balanced on his wings. He was blind, Vermilion noticed, the pupils of both unblinking eyes a milky white that seemed to always stare out at the middle distances. Vermilion mumbled a quiet thank you and took a long sip from his glass, waiting for the attendant to move along before speaking.

“What’s with all the workers here?” he asked.

Rose trailed the retreating attendant with her eye. “It used to be traditional for injured or deformed pegasi to work in the baths, back when they lived in cloud cities. Nothing in here requires using your wings. I believe the tradition simply continued after the Pact was signed.”

Oh. Made sense, he supposed. He watched the blind pegasus unerringly make his way around the pool, stopping by each group of ponies. His lack of vision didn’t seem to be a hindrance.

Vermilion wasn’t sure how long they’d been in the water, but he didn’t feel like taking too many chances with his balls. With any luck he’d actually get to use them someday. So he pushed himself up and climbed out onto the tile border, his coat plastered to his skin and dripping hot water. The sudden change in temperature left him feeling dizzy for a moment.

“Had enough?” Rose asked.

“For now, yeah.” He shook his barrel, splattering both of the mares with water. “Er, sorry. Where’s the frigidarium? I’m gonna look for our pegasi.”

Quicklime grinned at him. “Second floor. You should try it! I did once.”

“Just once?”

“Yeah. It’s a little less enjoyable.”

That seemed subjective, especially from somepony who didn’t have testicles to worry about. “Any health concerns?”

“If you stop shivering it means your body has lost control of its temperature regulating mechanisms and you’re probably going to die,” Rose said. “Aside from that, have fun.”

* * *

The frigidarium was easy to find. Up the stairs to the second floor, then down the emptiest corridor in the building to a set of double doors with a stylized snowflake carved on them. Steam rose from the tepid puddles of water on the tile floor as they evaporated into the chilly air. Vermilion pushed the doors open and entered a dimly lit pool room.

The walls here were painted dark blue. There were no windows, and the only light came from dim, half-shuttered lanterns set in alcoves. The ceiling above was painted with images of the constellations and clouds and flocks of pegasi dancing in complex, interlocking patterns.

Real pegasi lounged in the pool, by themselves or in pairs. He didn’t see any unicorns or earth ponies in here, and for a moment the sensation of being out of place, of intruding in a space not meant for him, washed over him like a nervous blanket. He was about to turn and escape when a familiar voice called out.

“Cherry! Over here!” It was Cloud Fire, sitting up to his neck in a corner of the pool. Zephyr paddled around in deeper water a few feet away, her wings outstretched for balance like pontoons.

Vermilion trotted over. The floor beneath his hooves crunched with each step, and he realized the tiles were coated with a thin film of brittle ice. He stopped by the edge of the pool.

“Enjoying yourselves?” he asked.

“It’s nice.” Cloudy flicked a wing at him, spraying him with frigid drops. “Wanna come in? Water’s nice.”

“Looks cold.”

“Eh, you get used to it fast, right Zeph?”

“He’s right,” Zephyr said. She paddled over and rested her forelegs on the edge of the pool. “Cold water’s good for you, too. Not like that hot stuff downstairs.”

“Yeah, it’s bad for you, downstairs,” Cloudy said. “If you know what I mean.”

“I think I do.” The pool they swam in was unnaturally still, as if their movement generated no ripples or disturbances. It was like looking at a mirror, with only the faint ghosts of shapes beneath the surface visible in the dim lantern light. He half expected it to shatter when he touched it with his hoof.

It didn’t. His hoof sank easily into the water, and a numbing cold rushed up his leg as though injected straight into his veins. It found his heart, and he let out a quiet gasp.

“Heh, look at him, Zeph.” Cloudy grinned an immensely pleased grin. “It never gets old, seeing their expression when—whoa, hey, careful bud!”

Vermilion ignored him. He stepped the rest of the way into the pool, immersing first his forelegs, then his hind legs, then sinking down into the water until it covered his withers. He drew in a deep, uncontrollable breath as the freezing water swallowed him. It was like bathing in snowmelt. Winter reached its icy claws into his hide, sinking their cold touch past his flesh and into his bones. His breath fogged above the water’s surface.

For a moment the freezing cold held him in suspension, as though he were frozen himself. But then his heart beat hard in his chest, slamming into his ribs like a hammer, and he breathed once again. The cold remained, penetrating him, consuming him, but he found it no longer hurt. It was simply a sensation like any other. He laughed, a quick, quiet bark of a laugh, when he realized where he’d felt it before.

With Luna. Bathing in the pool was like standing in her embrace. He settled into it and let it freeze all his fears, his worries and his anxieties into tiny, solid lumps that sank into the depths and vanished from sight.

“Hey, uh, you okay?” It was Cloudy speaking. He was standing on the submerged bench beside Vermilion, concern written on his face.

“Just fine,” Vermilion said. “You were right. This is nice, once you get used to it.”

“Uh, yeah.” Cloudy sat back down. The rest of the pool had gone silent, and was staring at them. “Sorry, just never seen an earth pony do that before. Or a unicorn. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I said I was.” Vermilion twisted to lean against the stone rim of the pool. It was rough and unpolished, and felt wonderful when he scratched against it. “Better than the hot baths.”

“You must have some pegasus blood in there somewhere,” Zephyr said. She scootched up beside him and leaned against his flank. The touch of her coat was like a hot coal – he half expected to see steam rising from their contact. “So, what’s the plan?”

He sighed. “Quicklime just asked me that. All I know is that Luna wants us back here for some political thing. Something about Celestia.”

“Do you think we’ll be in Everfree long?” Zephyr scratched behind her ear with a hoof, then rubbed the same spot against the stone rim of the pool. “I have some friends I want to visit.”

“Friends?” Cloudy said. “Is Chinook in town?”

Zephyr blushed at her fiance’s name, then gave them both a sheepish grin. “In fact, she is. Her unit’s rotating through and she’ll be on leave for a week or so. I’d love to, uh, get reaquainted with her.”

“Heh. ‘Reaquainted’.” He nudged Vermilion’s ribs with his wing.

Vermilion cleared his throat. “We’ll probably have a few days here, maybe more. There’s only so many monsters in the world, right? We can’t be out there fighting them constantly.”

“Ever the optimist,” Cloudy said. He turned his attention back to Zephyr, and motioned toward her wings. “You sure you want Chinook to see you like that? You’re a bit scraggly still.”

Zephyr shrugged. “Injuries happen. She knows that.”

“Yeah, but it’s not very hot, you know?”

Zephyr said something back, but Vermilion tuned their banter out. The cool water soothed him, relaxed him in a way the hot baths couldn’t, and he felt his attention drifting across the surface like a leaf on a pond. He thought about Luna again, and daydreamed about all the odd errands she could have for them in Everfree, and tried to imagine all the reasons she might need them as a tool against her sister, Celestia, whom he had never even met.

Would he get to meet her? That was a rare honor, even for accomplished warriors. But now they were knights in Luna’s service, which must count for something. He’d have to be careful not to let their new status go to his head. Or to Cloudy’s head, which seemed more likely.

In time, the two pegasi’s verbal jousting ceased, and all three simply lay in the pool, letting the water and darkness wash away their thoughts.

* * *

Rose and Quicklime caught up with them in the oil parlour, which in spite of its name was not salacious in the least. Pegasi came in from the baths, toweled themselves dry, then sat on felt-covered benches beside tables filled with brushes and bottles and bowls filled with various oils. Vermilion peered at one out of curiosity (apparently earth ponies and unicorns were allowed in the room, as long as they behaved themselves), and saw that in addition to the usual scentless oils he expected for wings, the attendants had also provided a few with more aromatic characteristics. He sniffed at bowls smelling of sandalwood and oranges and lemongrass and oleander. A few bowls were filled with sparkles or tinted in various colors. Zephyr and Cloud Fire, being the sensible pegasi they were, ignored all of these in favor of the simple and inconspicuous.

“This looks complicated,” he said.

“It’s really not,” Cloud Fire said. He flapped his wings loosely a few times, shedding a few final drops of water, then let his wings hang out limp at his sides. The feathers were all waterlogged and scraggly, not at all the sleek, curved foils he was used to seeing on pegasi. “It’s just like clipping your hooves or, uh, filing your horn, if you’re a unicorn.”

Rose snorted. “Only if you’re a whore.”

Quicklime giggled and buried her snout in her hooves. “Rose! Ponies will hear you!”

Rose shrugged. “It’s true.”

“Really?” Vermilion tried not to peer too obviously at the unicorn mares’ horns. “What, uh, why is that?”

“It’s a cheap way to get stallions’ attention,” she said. She paused for a moment, then let out a quiet, almost inaudible sigh. “Every young mare does it at least once.”

“Well, maybe it’s not like horn filing, then,” Cloudy said. He was more blatant about inspecting the unicorn’s horns. “Anyway, every pegasus has to do it, or you can’t fly very well. Doesn’t take too long. Especially when your wings look like Zephyr’s.”

“Ha. Laugh it up,” Zephyr said. With her feathers soaked through, it was more obvious than usual just how bare her wings were. Even the largest of her primaries were less than half the length of Cloud Fire’s. “We know who the better flyer is.”

“You can watch if you want,” Cloudy said. “Don’t like, uh, stare at the other pegasi, though. That’s weird.”

“We can stare at you two, though?” Quicklime asked.

“That’s also weird, but sure.”

With their feathers waterlogged and sticking together in clumps, the anatomy of Cloud Fire’s wing was more obvious than ever. Vermilion could see the limb with its joints and muscles and even the pale, pebbled skin in places. Cloud Fire held it out and ran his mouth along the leading edge, his tongue and lips and teeth moving in a blur as they nipped the tiny covert feathers and tugged them into line with the others. He did the same on the underside of the arm, sorting out the secondaries, then ran each of the long primary feathers through his lips, sluicing away the water and restoring a semblance of of order and design to them. The whole process took only a few minutes, and then he did the same with his left.

Zephyr was faster, probably owing to having fewer feathers. When she was done she bent over the table and dipped the tip of her snout in one of the larger bowls. It came up smeared with oil, and she turned to rub her nose briskly into her feathers, spreading the oil evenly to each feather in turn. A few more dips, and her wings had a glossy shimmer to them that reminded Vermilion of polished brass. She flapped them a few times, fluffing the feathers out, and let them settle back at her side.

“There we are.” She turned to Vermilion. “So, we going to the palace after this?”

“We’d be there already if it were up to me,” Vermilion said. “The baths were your idea.”

“Actually it was Rose’s,” Quicklime popped up. “Right Rose?”

“Mhm.”

“Whoever’s idea it was, it was nice, but we do need to get to the palace,” he said. “Luna is expecting us.”

The sun was well past its zenith when they finally left the baths. Though night was many hours away, Vermilion felt he could sense the moon waiting beneath the horizon, biding its time before being born. With him leading the way, they hurried through Everfree toward the palace and their impatient mistress.

Comments

[Lurks-no-More]

So this is the obligatory bathhouse episode?

Very nice read, once again, with lovely little bits of worldbuilding like the idea that injured pegasi work at baths.

[Whitty]

Fantastic so far, really looking forward to seeing where you take this.

[Mitch H]

Nngh. Scenery porn. So much sexier than simple, regular porn. Was it good for you, too?

[Dafaddah]

Great world building! I love the way you’re extending the basic idea of Pegasi culture being very Greco-Roman.

[Alondro]

“Hot water can damage your testicles.

Unless you're a dragon...

[Blackbriar]

This series is so awesome!

[djthomp]

Rose is fun.

“If you stop shivering it means your body has lost control of its temperature regulating mechanisms and you’re probably going to die,” Rose said. “Aside from that, have fun.”

Lots and lots of fun.

I wonder if Cherry just bought himself a lot of credit with a bunch of Everfree pegasi. For some reason this experience isn't expected to be one for an earth pony.

“Do you think we’ll be in Everfree long?” Zephyr scratched behind her ear with a hoof, then rubbed the same spot against the stone rim of the pool. “I have some friends I want to visit.”

“Friends?” Cloudy said. “Is Chinook in town?”

Zephyr blushed at her fiance’s name, then gave them both a sheepish grin. “In fact, she is. Her unit’s rotating through and she’ll be on leave for a week or so. I’d love to, uh, get reaquainted with her.”

Oooo, hey hey.

[Skywriter]

I just want like five more chapters in the bathhouse. Is that wrong of me?