Loves noon

by SilverHoof1

Something Fishy..

“Really that's it? Jeeze, from the distress I thought it was dissatisfaction or something,” Aristo said breezily. That was kind of easy for her to say since for one she could use magic and most likely do all my chores at once like it was nothing. Two she was sitting in a chair next to me playing with her tail while i scrubbed the floors with a sponge. “It is dissatisfaction, i don’t like how this is going and I have the feeling that by the end of this month i’m going to be doing all her chores,” I said patiently, imagining the lazy succubus as an ignorant child.

“Then why don’t you just talk to her, or better yet why not -”

“No, don’t even go there its not that kind of spa,” I cut her off, giving her a look with a finishing swish of the sponge. “And I can’t talk to her about it anyway, she would go into a hissy fit, say i was complaining about getting paid to do something anypony could do, and promptly fire me or simply dump her entire job onto me..” I considered for a second, then with a wry smile “that wouldn’t be far from what she is already doing anyway,”

“Well if its that big a problem I can just alter her mind and -” her words were cut off with a now pretty dirty sponge being flung into her face, making a satisfying SPLAT against her face. “No mind altering either, that is just morally wrong,” I grumbled, giving her a look I hoped would burn satan. Apparently she wasn’t along that branch of demon because she returned the look with a smile that would make any weak willed fool crumble.

“Why not? It would make things sooo much easier, and it would take away your problems with it, heck if you wanted i could make her act like a chicken,”

“That would just be cruel,” I shot back, but a small part of my mind agreed that it would solve all my problems. Not the chicken part, we already had scootaloo - ha ha - and we didn’t need another one. “No mind altering magic and thats final,” I finished, turning my head towards the approaching hoofsteps sounding down the short hall. “Uhm also is this one of those things where only I can see you and nobody else can?”

“No, i’m part succubus but i’m mostly a pony,” she responded chuckling, which was when Lotus, thank celestia, rounded the corner. Her eyes widened a bit at the sight of the laughing shark pony thing behind me, but despite her she kept walking, keeping her eyes focused on me. That was what I liked about her, she wasn’t easily spooked or swayed when she had something to do. Atleast Aristo wouldn’t be able to make her a puddle of ecstasy on the floor. I hoped.

“There you are, i’ve been looking all over for you, and also who might this be?” she asked, looking over to aristo who was looking her up and down, an eyebrow quirked as if she was assessing her. “Her name is aristo, and supposedly she is a succubus pony shark that was sent here to help.. Although sent by who or what i don’t know,” I responded, with a look back at Aristo her gave one of her toothy smiles. Lotus seemed at a loss for a moment, then with a flash she smiled back, her smile as friendly as if she had known aristo her whole life. Knowing aristo’s tricks, I quickly sent a kick right where a women should respect, and Aristo let out a groaning gasp, the magic that had been attaching to Lotus breaking, and with it the smile faded.

“Sorry about that, i’m currently trying to teach the succubus mind magic needs consent,” I apologized, giving the blue pony a sharp look. She gave a pained smile, “sorry its an old habit, where i was before i came here it was kind of needed,”

“Okay then.. Anyway could you come with me? Your friend can come too, if she is going to help,” at the words “your friend” she glanced at Aristo, who had recovered, and began trotting towards one of the massage rooms. With a nodd I knew she couldn’t see I followed, and after a few seconds I heard hoofsteps behind my own. It only took a minute or two to get to the massage room and find Lotus again. She was in the process of giving Crystal, a silver colored unicorn mare with purple hair and crystal like wings sticking out to her sides, laying on the mats meant specifcially for pegasi users. I’m not sure if she qualified since the wings were linked to her mentally but not physically, but I had just decided it was cool a while ago and left it at that. At the sound of our entering, she smiled, her eyes wandering past me to see Aristo and her smile turned a bit confused but stayed. “Hey Misty, Aristo”

“Hey crystal, nice seeing you again 1 hour later,” she said with one of her toothy smiles, and Crystal shrugged. “its nice to see you too I guess,”

“You two know each other?” I asked surprised, and they both nodded. “We met a little bit before I met you, she said she normally came in early to get the day started well or something,”

“She is quite the interesting pone, when I walked into the room she was complaining about how here phone wouldn’t keep fogging up in the steam room” Crystal said chuckling, shaking her head while Lotus gently pushed along her back. From my own experience doing this I knew she was currently trying to ease the nerves attached and running along her spine, and based on the happy and relaxed face Crystal wore it was working. It was slightly surprising when Aristo was the one who cleared her throat, her demeanor more serious than before, despite the shark tail flipping around behind her happily. “So, I’m guessing since you all know each other that this is a discussion about Aloe?” Our response was a loud “SSSSSHHHHHHH”, and after Aristo blinked seeming surprised Crystal looked at her. “Don’t say her name, she has a bad tendency to stick her ear against walls when she is bored,” she said, frowning in annoyance which seemed to be fighting the relaxation from Lotus. “Okay, well then is this about the problem that is about a person abusing another person?” Aristo rephrased, and Lotus nodded. “My sister has had a lazy streak since the spa opened, she tried to geto out of work all the time, the only reason I didn’t mention it is because when she did work she did her best,”

“But since i came here, she has had someone to boss around and make do her work,” I added in, frowning at the thought. Lotus nodded, her own frown deepening and crystal sighed. “That wouldn’t be so bad if we could just talk to her, but if lotus tells her she will think she is being betrayed and will lash out at Misty, if misty says something she will just do something worse to her, and if I say something she won’t even pay attention,”

“Misty what are you doing in here! You haven’t cleaned out the trash yet,” a voice suddenly some from behind me and I whirled around, Aloe standing in the doorway authoritivly, glaring at me haughtily like I had disobeyed an order from a princess. That look pushed it even for me, and I snapped back “thats your job, you should also have started letting people in by now and helped them at the lobby,”

“Excuse me!?” she shouted, her voice raising as if to go over my own instinctivly. “I am your boss, and you do what I sa -”

“Shut up,” Aristo growled, her left eye glowing bright pink, the heart showing clearly in her pupil as all of a sudden Aloe’s jaw clenched shut, her eyes bulging out of her head. “You don’t see me and you don’t hear what i’m saying, but you will do it anyway,” the succubus continued, setting a cold glare on Aloe as if she were a juicy piece of meat. Aloe suddenly seemed to calm down, seeming confused by her inability to speak but besides that only focused on me. “Go do what your job is, and start thinking before you scream at someone like they are your subjects and they have to do what you say,” she snapped, as if having experience with a mare like this herself. “Oh and you can talk again,”

“Misty -” she began to say, then seemed to think. She closed her mouth, shook her head, and headed back outside the room, leaving the three of us staring at where she had been standing only five seconds ago. Then Aristo seemed to prickle, turning around to see the three of us looking at her with astonished looks as the heart in her left eye pulsed, other small hearts coming off it with each pulse as if it was an emoji. Lotus was the first to speak, anger, fear and wonder mixed into her voice as she asked the question on all of our minds. “What did you just do?”

Aristo looked at me, seeming to apologize with her eyes as the heart gave a final pulse then faded. “A bit of mind magic, that wasn’t going to end well and I had to stop her from continueing or she would do something you would both regret,”

“I know you were trying to help but..” I mumbled, looking at her with a confused look. Did she change her mind, make her suddenly like me? Have her be put under her control so she can keep her in check? Is she going to vanish in the night and not be seen again? Seeing my look,she shook her head.

“I took off the whole no seeing or hearing me thing, but she will think before she talks, I didn’t just edit her mind like it was an open book,”

“So she will still be her usual self?” Lotus questioned, her massage forgotten as worry seemed to cloud her mind.

“Yes, if she changes its her own will, but now she should be a bit more reasonable,” the succubus stated as if she was reading a paper, then looked at me. “That felt.. better than usual, as if I was doing something good. Did I?”

To my surprise Crystal chuckled, looking at aristo with a playful smile, “ considering you didn’t change her besides making her less of a princess I would say you did fine Mache,”

“Mhm,” both me and Lotus agreed, and I looked at Aristo with a small smile. Aristo smiled back, clearly pleased, her tail wagging almost like a dog’s. After that the day continued on fairly normally, the four of us chatting as we helped customers through the day, giving massages and opening the private spa room for them.Aristo knew a surprising amount on massages and nerves, so she stayed to help Lotus with the massage rooms while me and Crystal showed ponies where the steam room and private spa’s were. We even managed to sell a couple scented candles, which was a nice turn from the usual flat denials we had gotten last time. It seemed Aloe’s theory hadn’t been completely wrong.

After a good four hours of work it was time to head home. Aristo had apparently decided she would follow me home to meet this “Riptide I liked”, and Crystal asked if she could come along. I nodded, even though I wasn’t completely sure there was enough room for all four of us, it would be interesting to see how Riptide would react to three mares coming home to him. Considering I often got to tease him for staring at passing by mares, I had the feeling this would be quite fun. After a couple of goodbyes to Lotus and the still considering Aloe we headed home, excited for a night to ourselves. I had no work tomorrow and had been planning to throw a small get together to relax at the beach or play some games, having too more wouldn’t hurt. My only concern was Aristo would turn the get together into something else.

On the way home the three of us talked about our days, although Aristo seemed a bit guarded about her past. A bit of poking at it later showed that apparently she hadn’t been having the best time where she was before she came here, but other than that we could get nothing. After a couple more minutes we reached the house, standing proudly with a new layer of paint Riptide had apparently added while I was gone, making the house look almost like it was apart of the see behind it.

With a smile, I opened the door and called “Honey we’re home!”