Loves noon

by SilverHoof1

Rocky Road

“Morning sunshine,” a soft voice said next to my ear. The natural response was obviously a groan before turning away from the noise.

“Five more minutes ma..” i grumbled from my pillow before my head began to drift into the clouds of sleep. Those clouds suddenly went away in a hurry though when I felt a sudden set of four claws dig into my rump. Yelping in pain I sat up fast, disturbing cloud to jump off my rump before he was squished, his yellow eyes giving me a half hooded glare that it seemed cats mastered at birth. Heck he was only a bit more than a year old, having grown up from the small young and starved kitten he was in the alley.

Riptide cleared his throat, giving a smug smile and looking very pleased with himself. “The cloud a’clock works everytime~”

“And just like every time you sleep on the couch tonight,” I shot back with a huff. That wiped the pleased look off his face, but before he could beg for otherwise cloud hopped ontop of his head, and with the added weight of a full grown cat his head went down into the sheets, it being cloud’s turn to look pleased with himself. I myself smirked before saying casually “good cat, you just got the two of you back under covers,”

A muffled yay could be heard under the purring ball of fluff, which I guessed came from Riptide and I giggled. Since we had first gotten together a year ago things had been going well. Cloud had been steadily growing and getting the shots required for him to be in public, and their relationship had continued to grow more.. Intimate over time. The thought of some of the things they had done brought some color to my cheeks, which were, atleast before work quickly herded away.

Work over time had become a bit of a struggle, aloe beginning to push me to do other jobs as she continued to get better, which honestly mostly just caused stress and anxiety that I wouldn’t do it right and would get fired, and she was my boss. I couldn’t just tell her I wanted to stick with the one job i originally had. Could I? That also got pushed out of my mind as the main concern of actually getting to work came to mind.

Before long I was trotting out of the home, calling a goodbye through the door before closing it behind me. Thanks to the surprise cloud wake up I could make it on time, not that that made me like the process anymore. Cloud really had sharp claws and it was not a nice wake up call that was for sure. Even so i was on the way there and knew i could get there without breaking a sweat so that was nice atleast. The spa ponies as usual were sitting behind the chair waiting for me, a smile on Aloe’s face at the sight.

“Ah it is good to see you Misty, I was hoping I could ask a favor of you,” she said in her exotic accent, looking at me with a beaming smile. Damnit why did she have to do that it was like puppy eyes on overdrive. Except mature. Hesitating, i tilted my head to the side before asking cautisiously “what is it Aloe? You already have my schedule pretty full..”

“I know and im very sorry to add more, but it would make me the world” she responded, giving me the puppy dog eyes. She said that every. Single. Time.

“Only if its something quick..” i grumbled, knowing my face was still a calm mask. Note the word mask, since inside a kettle was whistling like it was threatening to burn down the house. At that Aloe gave a bright gleaming smile, as if her teeth had silver plotting along the front. “Ahh perfect! I was hoping that today you could try selling the customers scented candles before they go in?”

“We tried that before remember? All that got us was weird stares and at worst a lower tip,”

“But we did that after they finished, if we do it before maybe they would be more open,” she responded breezily, and her sister, or atleast i thought it was her sister, Lotus Blossom, rolled her eyes. “Aloe, I believe you should listen to misty on this one,” she said, but once again Aloe gave her large smile and said breezily “It will be different this time i swear,”

This time both me and Lotus rolled our eyes, nearly at the same time. I had told her earlier about Aloe, but she hadn’t talked to her about it and i was afraid to do so. Because you know i need my job and all. I would like to keep that, and i trusted Lotus, she seemed more mature. Aloe though seemed like the type that if she was told no she would get a hissy fit. Considering i had no secrets from this place as well the only way she could deal with it is by firing me.

“I still don’t think its a good idea, plus isn’t selling things your job?” i replied, raising an eyebrow and taking a step to my own post. Rage spiked in her eyes and she snapped “I’m busy and i don’t have the time,”

Oh gee, ditto miss bossy boss bossertin. Infact she had slowly been putting all of her chores around the place on me, making me busier then the both of them combined. The worst part was I had seen Aloe slacking and just reading a book while i did all the work, or atleast most of it. Lotus still did her jobs, and sometimes if we were working in the same area we would share gossip and stories. It wasn’t like the job was all bad either though, i had met some new friends here, including one of my new best friends Crystal, who i had met a few weeks ago. Riptide had actually gotten to meet her and they hit it off well, talking about science and magic and things that i could never understand as a earth pony. Infact i don’t know how riptide knew anything unless he had some kind of special magic related to the water. That would explain how he managed to surf..

The sound of an impatiently tapping hoof brought me out of my thoughts. Aloe had aparently been staring at me the entire time i had been thinking, a tray of scented candles, each with their own price tag, laying on the desk infront of her. It was always so annoying when she acted like a spoiled filly, but what could i do? She was the boss, and if I wanted my job I had to do it. So keeping my grumbling internal i took the tray in my mouth, set it near the door that led to the private spa room, and walked over to the steam room, already having to start my first chore.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow flash in and out of existence. My old thief instincts triggered my head whipped towards the sight, but whatever it had been, if there had been anything, was gone. I stared for a few more seconds anyway just incase, then shaking my head i started walking again. I must be seeing things, there was nothing there. Don’t freak out, there is no reason too, no freaking out. Don’t do it, no. Bad mind no.

The shadow seemed to flash another five times in my vision, convincing my brain i was either being followed or i was going crazy from stress. Both options were equally likely, but luckily it was a short walk and before long i was at the steaming room. Opening the door i was greeted by the humidly warm combination of air and steam, my mane instantly sticking onto my forehead and frizzling at the same time. Shaking my head, I headed into the room, my hair hanging infront of eyes blocking my eyesight a bit. Apparently a little bit of hair can cover up a lot since there was already someone in the steam room.

That's when my eyes turned off(she closed her eyes) and i turned around. It was.. I wasn’t completely sure. It was blue, with a green and lighter blue mane. Its eyes were sideways like a snakes, but she obviously wasn’t a snake, i could see that in detail since she was naked. Well i had for the few seconds atleast, but that was enough to see the protruding tail of some type coming from between her legs. “Well hello there,” i grumbled, turning back to her my eyes still not working.

“Hi darling, sorry I didn’t want to lock the door.. Incase someone else did come in~”

“Oh god, jeeze this still pg13?” i replied, opening an eye to look a “bit low”.

“Yup, and stop ruining the story there aren’t that many walls to break,”

“Wait what? I was just joking what do you mean “breaking walls”?”

“Nothing nothing darling,” the thing.. Which I guessed was a pony laughed merrily, giving me a toothy yet somehow friendly smile. How could it do that - which i also saw was a she -, it looked like it planned to eat me in the most friendly way while her eyes glittered “You’ll like it~”.

“Two questions, one who are you, two why are you here in the steam room when we aren’t even open?”

“You mean you didn’t notice the images?” she said poutily, and my mind flashed back to the dancing shadows i had seen in the corners of my eyes, and immediatly my eyes looked to her forehead.. but there was no horn. “Fine, i got in here a while ago when I wanted a break, and to answer your other question my name is..well lets say i’m the one you come too for fun~”

“That still isn’t an answer,” I responded stubbornly, and she raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly i felt a soft pressure in my head, and after a second of tense pressure i felt all the tension leak out of my body like water. At that the pupil of one of her eyes had turned into a pink heart, pulsing softly as the tension continued to leave and she said in a breezy tone “relax your fine and i’m not going to hurt you, my name is Aristo mache -” she paused for a second and the heart faded from her eye, then she smiled “shark pony succubus extraordinaire of the interesting arts at your service misty,”

“How did you - “ she cut me off with a laugh, smiling teasingly “name tag sweetheart,”

“Oh, right,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck with a hoof. Suddenly she was wearing a simple towel, as if it had happened as quickly as the blink of an eye, and i blinked again, but the towel stayed. “I heard someone was having troubles down here and i wanted to come by to help, i may be part succubus but that doesn’t mean i care only about having fun,” she said, her voice taking on a “talking to a prayer” tone, as if I would hold a cross at her shouting demon. Why would I? My body felt like taffy and my mind was sluggish, the theif like awareness going away with the tension slowing me down to a normal pace. “Okay, your right but that opens up too new questions - “ the sluggishness increased, and i blinked suddenly feeling both hot and sleepy. My eyes locked onto hers, but this time there was no heart, but there was a sign she was using magic. Her left eye had a slightly odd pink shine to it, and I gave a curious smile, too relaxed and hot to consider it beyond weird. “Are you using magic on my head, your eye is glowing,”

“U-uh no..” she said, obviously startled as she blinked, the glow going away and the feeling going with it.

I thought succubi could only do things related to “fun”, but her corrilation to other races seems to give her a wider range. The mind magic probably mixes well with both succubus and pony magic, although i wonder if the visual glow is from her being part shark. If so that would be interesting, maybe if i can not be seduced or hypnotized into her hoofs she could actually help. Making my decision, i looked at her sternly, which seemed to hit a shy streak in her, Aristo slightly flinching away from my gaze. “Don’t do that please, come out of the room or if you want check to make sure everything is running smoothly so I don’t have too,” I instructed her, the comment on what she had done seemed to subdue her, but from the small glint in her eye i had the feeling if I wasn’t careful I would be eating out of her.. hoof, if things got out of hand.

A couple minutes later she came out, looking at me with that same friendly-toothy smile. “So, whats up butter cup?”