I was absolutely furious. This pony was keeping me glued to this measuring stool and felt like my anger was great enough to destroy the entire planet. The purple pony...Twilight Sparkle, could obviously see it and looked quite worried.

"Uhhh, Rarity, maybe you should--"

"Not now dear, I'm measuring your friend.” You continued to pamper me and dress me up, much to my rage. “Oh, you'll look simply marvellous!” she cheered. “For such a young mare, you look absolutely divine and well groomed." She stepped back and squinted. “Almost like somepony has been maintaining your for several years every day.”

I laughed nervously. “Funny how that works, huh?”

I was hiding the fact that her saying ‘mare’ when enraging me, but I was doing it poorly, since I broke the wooden stool after applying prefer to it with my front hooves. Twilight jumped back once my ears and my teeth started to show. That white pony just wouldn't drop it.

"I've finished the measurements!" the white one cheered.

My ears.

I felt a huge pressure leave my body like steam from an engine. When I motioned to get off the now cracked stool, I was stopped by that Rarity character who plopped right in front of me. She had a that matched Silver's mane perfectly. While I find that it would’ve fit on the plushy just fine, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the fact that *I* was the plushy now. I scampered away from her.

“N-no! I don't need that. Thank you.” I backed away with a lacking smile.

"Oh! But I insist! You'll look just ravishing in it!" She held up the dress in her...magic field?

"I insist myself. I don't want it."

Her behavior became more...dominant. "You WILL wear it,” she commanded.

"No. I won't,” I replied with the same tenacity.”

"YES! YOU WILL!"

"NEVER!" I yelled loudly whilst shaking a foreleg.

"GET BACK HERE! No customer leaves my shop without a decent dress on them!"

So the game of cat and mouse started, and while I would have found this amusing on a tv show, I didn’t like someone trying to clothe me without my consent...In retrospect, that sounds weird.

"Hah! I said I would get you to wear it!”

I spat out, pulling her hoof off of my face. ”What's wrong with you?! Why would you attack me just for a girly dress!"

"Hmph! Just look at yourself in the mirror. And before you say anything, yes. I thought a bit of galloping around would free you of your frustration energy.” She grinned. “I think it worked, at least a bit.”

“You could’ve tried another method,” I growled.

Twilight agreed with me. “You were a bit aggressive there, Rarity.”

The white mare nodded. “True, but I get so excited when I see somepony who would be perfect as a model for a specific catalogue.” She bowed to me. “I apologize for my rash and unbecoming behavior, Silver.”

“That doesn’t really excuse what you did,” Twilight disapproved.

That giant vanity mirror of hers floated right in front of me, and I....could not comprehend my reactions. Were they mine or Silver's? If she even had a mind of her own, she seemed to appreciate what she was seeing...I guess? I know I hated it. I was now wearing a dress of mainly silver colors, but outlined with white. There were two blue petals put in the same position of my flank marks and were pulled down across the fabric. Smaller ones were also scattered all over the dress in a well organized manner, creating lines and curves. The white outlines of the dress all seemed to be made of crashing waves and little droplets of water. It was beau-I psychically smacked myself. GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF DERRY! What kind of thought pattern is that?! Let's at least be polite and take it anyways...

"It's...nice," I trailed off to the side.

Rarity giggled in approval at my embarrassment. "Oh, I suppose that’s the best I’ll get from you, but thank you very much.” Her smile turned to a confused frown. “Now then...what were you here for again, Twilight?”

“Well, first to say that Silver looks gorgeous in that dress.”

I glared at her, and her smile turned to a sheepish one accompanied by nervous chuckling. That being said, it felt very...strange to receive compliments from someone who wasn’t my grandfather. Most things I heard were basic, derogatory terms that, quite honestly, I had grown bored of.

The marshmallow turned to Twilight with a proud and calm expression. "So, Twilight, you said you wanted help with something?" she asked.

Twilight nodded with a smile. "Yes. I was hoping you could show Silver one of your, ah…” she twirled her hoof in the air. “ ‘Secrets’ to destressing."

"She does look a bit tense." Rarity frowned a put a hoof to her mouth.

“Gee, I wonder why?!” I half-yelled sarcastically.

Rarity gasped and her eyes brightened. "THE SPA!"

"OH NO! SHE'S GOING TO ATTACK ME AGAIN!" I shouted

"What? No!” She spread her foreleg across the air. “I'm going to give you a tour of the spa!"

"Can I at least take this… thing off?" I pulled at the dress, somehow, like it was a gross film of gunk on my skin. It might as well have been. A full-grown man wearing a dress...well, maybe not a 'man' anymore.

"I'll take it and bring it back to the library,” Twilight proposed. “I’d like to talk with you later, anyways." She looked at me with a smile and tilted head.

She managed to phase the clothes off of me, somehow, leaving me freed and in my...somewhat-nudity. I stretched myself, feeling all my tendons cracking with painful satisfaction. I took a peek at Rarity through squinted eyes and saw her display disappointment. Boo hoo.

"You don't want to come with us?" Rarity asked Twilight.

The unicorn shook her head. "No. I have a few things left to do, and I told Spike I would be back quickly. He and Silver..." She looked away and coughed on her hoof. "They had a tumultuous encounter, for lack of a better term."

The white pony eyed me up and down and looked at me with a skeptical expression. I found myself lifting my hoof up for protection. "What did she do?" she asked the unicorn without taking her eyes off of me.

Grah! There's that 'she' again! I wanted to rip everything apart with my bare hands, but I didn't have them anymore...I just had these...stumps. And flexing them while staring at them didn't change them back. I just hope that I don't have any kind of 'attraction' while I'm stuck like this. I don't think I'd be able to take it.

While I had been internally raging on the sides, Rarity was made aware of my exchange with the giant newt. I was stuck in my own self-flaggelating I hadn't realized she dragged me to some tiny building in the street. Not exactly sure how I didn't notice her physically dragging me nor the changes in light. I wobbled inside on these annoying legs and witnessed two mares standing behind a white counter overlooking the sky-blue tiled floors. I couldn't help but stick out my tongue in disgust at the humidity on the floor. Said ponies were mares, which was pretty obvious unless they were flamboyantly fabulous. One of them was baby blue with a bright pink mane while the other had the opposite scheme, and both had a headband holding their hair back.

Rarity placed six gold coins on the counter and exchanged silent glances at them. I was still confused as to where she hid the coins since she wasn't holding a bag, and the two mares looked at me with disturbing smiles.

"We'll be having the deluxe edition, girls," Rarity said.

My attempts to sneak out were foiled by the blue one grabbing me and dragging me towards a wooden, circular hot-tub full of boiling mud. Rarity had already dipped herself in it like the head of a cupcake in icing and was hanging on the border. She seemed satisfied, and I could see her chest slowly raising up and down with her slow breathing. Her mane was wrapped in a deep blue towel. Although I wonder if she did the same with her tail and how that would even work.

I kept myself out of the mud by using my hooves to cling to the edge of the tub protruding from the pit it had been buried in. Despite my protests, the pink one grabbed my forelegs and hucked me in the pool, splashing Rarity with mud and leaving me to blow bubbles out of my long nose under the mud. Rarity looked at me after flipping the cucumber slices on her eyes up with...nothing. I don't know how they were floating. I glared at her and narrowed my eyes even further, sinking deeper into the maw of this disgusting swamp beast.

While I moved about the mud pool, Rarity kept telling me to relax and that this was all 'very relaxing and refreshing' if I just did like her. Since I only moved about the mud like a crocodile, the two brightly colored mares tended to the marshmallow while occasionally looking at me with what I think was disappointment. No touchy. Plus, there were too many other people here. Very uncomfortable on multiple fronts. Yet it was broken by us being taken to a cleaning room where showers were abundant. Tinted windows let through it a filtered light worsened by the steam here. Steam which was a foreshadow to the sauna we were going to.

"Oh no," I groaned.

"What's wrong, darling?" Rarity asked.

"I hate sweating," I said with my head drooping.

She nodded and put a hoof to her chest. "Oh, I know what you mean. Sweat is bad for my complexion AND our manes. If anything, I could say it's very 'unladylike'." She looked at me with a smile, expecting me to chuckle.

I glared at her through a squint and ground my teeth together at the word 'lady'. It felt the same when I heard 'pony'.

She continued on, ignoring my lack of a response. "There's no need to worry. We have a cold shower waiting us after this. And then!" She clapped her hooves together. "A massage!"

"Massage?" I felt my ears perk up.

"Why yes. Aloe and Lotus are the best masseuses in Ponyville. Dare I say, in all of Equestria?" She silently chuckled. "I see that at least SOMETHING here has caught your interest, at least."

So this building was called the 'Aloe and Lotus Spa', apparently, and now Rarity is speaking french, which I barely know. I only recognized it because of the strange sounds that came from her mouth. The cold showers sprayed a mixture of water and soap, letting me dig into this obnoxious fur and get the sweat out. Again, the marshmallow was bragging about the soap in the water, thinking I cared. I wish I had Silver to hold right now. Ha. A grown man wanting to hug a plushie. How embarrassing.

Unfortunately, my envy for a massage was ruined by the aspect of the massagers: Two burly ponies. They stood next to the tables, their faces apparently in a permanent scowl. I decided to give them a chance, but learned quickly that that was a bad idea, specifically when I felt them piledriving my back. I was half expecting them to sweep me up, supplex me twice, then jump into the air and crush me face-first into the ground. That would be an atomic buster for sure.

Instead, the one massaging me stopped, put a hoof to his mouth, and looked at my back with some horrifying expression. Distraught, maybe? He rushed away, causing Rarity to ask me what I did. I shrugged and watched the pony...maybe a stallion, come back with the blue mare. I felt her hooves press into my back at several areas before she grabbed my head and stared into my souls. It was like she was attempting to stare into my soul. She started talking with a weak Chinese accent. She could at least try in her attempts.

"You are extremely tense. I've never seen anything like it." She rubbed the back of her head and looked at my back again. "Even my masseur has never seen the like." She backed away and limbered herself up by jogging in place. "I'll have to get Aloe for the special massage."

"Special...massage?" I repeated. "You aren't going to walk on my back, are you?"

The mare gestured the nervous massager to go get 'Aloe' then turned to me and shook her head. "No. Nothing like that."

The pink one arrived, as though on cue. These two were Aloe and Lotus, apparently. Sounds like a brand of shampoo, honestly. They took their time talking about my back, so much so that I just wanted to get up and wobble out of here. The two walked to my sides, stretched their hooves, and pushed haaaaaaaaaaard into my back! I have no idea how I couldn't feel anything, unlike their own muscles.

"Amazing," the blue one wheeze. "I've never had to work with such tense muscles, Aloe.

"Me neither, Lotus," the other responded. She looked at me. "What HAVE you been doing to yourself?"

I exhaled loudly. "Well, I've had YEARS to perfect my back," I chuckled.

"That would explain a lot," Lotus said.

I heard a loud crunch and bounced on the table, thinking they broke my back or something. The fear dissipated as quickly as I felt my body lightening.

"Found it!" the pink one congratulated herself. "It was near her heart..."

"Is that bad?" Rarity asked.

I forgot she was here.

Aloe shrugged. "Not sure. It's still a unique case."

For some reason, I was smiling like I was taken to Heaven to rest on its fluffy clouds. I could finally appreciate the massage I was given. I couldn't help but slowly drift off into a daze: Half awake and half asleep. Rarity woke me up some time later, telling me the massage was over. Still sluggish from the sudden awakening, I hopped off the table and followed Rarity outside. I had never felt so full of energy in my entire life. So, while the moment had ended, I got to continue savoring this sweet 'champagne'.

"So it seems you liked the last part there," Rarity told me with a sly grin.

"N-no," I responded nervously.

Rarity scoffed. "Everypony could see you loved the massage." She a put a hoof to her chin and appeared concerned for a moment. "Although I must admit that crack was...frightening. Are you sure you didn't feel anything?"

"Surprisingly...no." I shrugged.

"Hmm. Interesting, but also slightly disturbing." She chuckled nervously.

"I think I'll just go back to the library," I said. "It's down there, right?"

Rarity nodded. "Have a good rest of the day, Silver."

I was expecting her to want to change Silver's hair style, but it's been this way since the start and I'll never let anyone change it unless I decide so. I suppose it was for the best that she not bring it up. As for the giant tree serving as a library, I still didn't know how it worked. Entering it just added to the illogic functionality of it. Twilight was rearranging the books with her magic while the angry iguana passed me without looking at or greeting me.

"Silver?" Twilight called out. She turned to see me, and her face lit up. "How did it go with Rarity?"

"It was...okay..." I trailed off.

"Well, it looks like you softened up a bit, at least. A mare like you shouldn't walk around so tense all the time."

"What's it to you?" I said angrily.

"It's to me that I'm worried about you, is all. You're a pony that came from nowhere with apparently nothing to your name." She picked up a book with her...telekinesis and floated it up and down. "I tried looking you up in as many records of as many towns and cities that we had access to and found nothing." She put it back in a pile on the floor and frowned. "Since you don't want to tell me anything, I'll help you out as much as I can." She looked at me with a warm smile. "That's just how the ponies in Ponyville work...most of the time," she chuckled.

I don't know why, but what she said didn't...work for me. It's like my brain received the package she said but the address wasn't for it. No. What she said wasn't true. People weren't just nice for the sake of being nice. They do it if they want something in return, like those two ponies at the spa, and Rarity. The spa ponies do that to attract new customers and get more money, and the marshmallow likely did that to get me to come model for her crappy dresses or something.

I grabbed my head and heaved a long sigh. "I have a headache...I need a book to read and a bed to rest in while I do that. Can I just borrow some books?"

"Of course!" Twilight agreed energetically. She levitated some books down as to the preferences I shared with her. "Also, since you don't have a place to sleep, I've arranged an agreement with the mayor so that you can stay here until we find you a house and-or your family."

I held the books under my bent foreleg. Walking with four was hard enough, but three? I snorted at the prospect of finding my 'family'. "Don't bother. They're all dead," I told her dryly.

"Wh-what? That can't be true!"

"Let me correct myself." I cleared my throat. "They're dead to me."

She frowned. "That's not a very nice thing to think."

"Too bad." I scratched the back of my head with my hoof after placing the books gently on the floor. "And I can't just mooch off of you here without contributing."

The unicorn waved a hoof at me. "Nonsense. You don't need to worry about a thing. I'm given more than enough." She tapped her chin. "Well, when you get settled in, you could try helping around the library if it really bothers you that much. Until then, you'll have to sleep next to Spike."

"Spike?" I asked.

"My baby dragon. Did you already forget?" Twilight wondered with a raised brow.

"Oh...I did."

She shook her head and walked away. "I'm going to bring you a mattress and its amenities. I hope you don't mind too much. It's better than sleeping on the floor."

I had to agree with her there. While I waited for Twilight to come back and set up the mattress, I sat at a small table and started to read them. I didn't really know what time it was, so I just looked at the sun in the sky and assumed it to be one p.m. . It was one of those situations where something useless learned in school had its one and only use in life used up. Lots of using there. By the time I was done reading, I realized it was night time and everyone was going to bed. I had been so embroiled in the reading that Twilight lit a few candles around me.

I did learn of something...interesting in these books. What were they called again? Pegasi? Unisi...No. Alicorns! Two of them! One representing the sun and another the moon. The moon's tale was a tragic one for sue, but imagining that they actually existed? That brought a strange tingle of fear along my spine.

I decided to take a break and lie down on the mattress Twilight set out for me on the library floor. Getting the blanket over me was a struggle all its own. I still couldn't believe my predicament. This was like some kind of strange and horrible nightmare. Because of the niceties I was being given, I decided to apologize to Spike.

"Spike? I called out."

"What is it?"

Seems he wasn't asleep after all. "I wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier."

He rolled over to face me. "Well, I don't like what you said nor how you acted, but I suppose I can forgive you...for now."

There was a long, awkward silence. "So are you really a dragon?"

"Of course I am! What else could I be? And don't say 'lizard'!" he blurted.

I closed my mouth. "I don't know, but where I'm from, dragons are awe-inspiring monsters of might and power, and there can be many different types. Without wings, and walking on two legs, I couldn't figure out what you were."

He seemed full of pride after what I said. "I'm going to grow my wings in the future," he corrected.

"Can you breathe fire?"

Spike nodded. "Only a bit, and it's magic fire, too. I use it to send messages to the princesses."

We both exchanged a few more words before Spike went to sleep, leaving me to stare at the ceiling, and then my hooves.

"I still don't understand why I'm here. What should I do? Try to go home or stay here if they really are different from...home. Well, I've always trusted you, Silver. Let's see where you take me."