Now that the door to the steam room is closed, I could feel the full effect of the room, the heated air rising around me as I shiver, the temperature a big contrast to what it felt like outside. Taking a deep breath, I let out a soft exhale, letting the heated steam fill my lungs and then empty out...before coughing a bit as the heat burnt my lungs slightly. Giving myself a few moments to recover, I take the time to take a quick look around the room. It was a rather nice steam room, a row of seats against the walls, the center having what seemed to be rather hot rocks in a bowl. The walls were lined with some sort of calming scenery with trees and a few birds, all done in many different shades of purple. Above said bowl was a shower head sort of fixture, most likely used to spray a bit of water onto the rocks to create the steam.

Just across on the other side of the room sat Rarity and Fluttershy, the former having a towel around her body and her mane, while the latter just had one towel around her torso. They seemed to both be in conversation before I entered, and seeing me walk in, they stop talking and give me a smile as the white mare waves me over. "Come Drak! Join us! Isn't the steam lovely?" She says, leaning back with a sigh.

I can't help but to nod in agreement as I made my way over to them. "It does feel rather nice, especially on a cold day like today." I say, moving to sit down next to the pegasus, who was the closer of the two. As I went to sit down, however, I realized that the seats would be a bit too small for me, so instead I went and sat on the floor. Leaning back, I found out that I could use the seats as some sort of armrest at least, spreading out a bit as I let out a sigh. "I think you're right Rarity, coming here is certainly going to help."

"I told you Darling! The spa is one of the best ways to relax and let all that stress wash away." She says, smiling back at me. I lean back and just enjoy the heat for a few moments before she starts talking again. "So Fluttershy and I were just talking about this lovely book that we were reading, the new Shadow's Spade Mystery that just came out."

The shy mare gives a tiny nod. "Oh yes, it is rather nice. I especially love the new chinchilla sidekick she has." She adds.

"Oh I know! Detective Tuffs is just so adorable!" Rarity agrees, giving a small squee as she claps her hooves together. "He and Spade go so WELL together! The perfect mystery solving duo!"

As they continue to talk to each other on the book, I start to doze off, leaning my head back as I sigh once again, a small smile on my face. At this moment, Rarity noticed that I wasn't being a part of the conversation.

"Oh where are my manners Drak. Have you by chance read anything good lately?" I blink as I turn and look at Rarity as she asks the question.

I ponder over it, drumming my fingers into the wood before responding. "None that I can think of. Like I said, the last book I read was about three weeks ago, and it was about the History of Equestria." I say.

"Oh...right. You told me that already." She says, giving a sheepish smile as she looks at Fluttershy for some help. The yellow mare is quiet for a while before she turns to talk to me.

"Well...how about...the weather? It's rather nice out." She says softly, causing me to raise an eyebrow at this. "I mean, I think it's nice out, unless it isn't, which I guess it could be better, but only if you-" She starts to say only for me to wave a hand out at her to get her to stop.

"Guys it's fine, really. You don't need to try and get me to talk to make me feel included." I say, causing them both to blush lightly.

"Is it that obvious?" Rarity asks, pawing the seat she was on.

I nod. "Just a bit." And that's coming from me

"We just wish for you to feel included. After all, this is for you as well." She explains.

I give a small shrug. "I know, I just don't feel the need to talk." Seeing the confused looks on their faces, I explain. "I kind of found out that when it comes to small talk...I'm not the best. Whenever some pony tried to talk to me about something or other, I just nod and listen. I never could figure out what to say, no matter what."

"Dear, that's normal. I mean, you're still rather new here, even after being here for almost a month. And with your anxieties that you have with being in large groups, I can only imagine that would slow things down so much, but certainly not that much. Even Twilight has gotten her bearings with talking to us after a while."

"She was the one who told me about it in the first place." I say with a deadpanned look.

This causes the white mare to pause. "Oh dear...that bad?" She asks after a moment of pause.

I just nod as she falls silent as well, the room filling with the awkward moment before Fluttershy spoke up. "I-I think you're doing a great job so far." She says with a small smile.

Looking back at her, I'm hit once again with that damn calming aura of hers, causing me to quickly look away before I got lost in her gaze. "I-I'm not sure about that." I reply, cursing my stutter. Being right next to the shy mare was causing me to really feel her calming emotions surrounding her, and slowly starting to surround me. I shouldn't have sat next to her with how overwhelming this was starting to make me feel...though not in a bad way, just new and sudden.

"It is true, you aren't nearly as bad as you think." Rarity agrees, causing me to glance over at her, eyebrow raised. "I mean you are talking to us right now, and that is all we really ask for."

I open my mouth to counter argue, but close it as I realize that she is right. I was talking now about how I couldn't talk, and the thought of that irony makes me chuckle lightly. "You know, you're right. The fact that I'm talking about how I'm not good at talking is rather silly, don't you think?" I ask them.

They both giggle and nod in agreement. "If you want, you can just listen to us as you enjoy the steam." The pegasus offers.

I nod in agreement. "That sounds like a good idea." I say. Leaning back and closing my eyes, I add, "If you do want to ask me something, though, I'll be willing to try and answer...assuming I don't fall asleep."

I hear some more giggling as Rarity responds. "Of course Dear, no need to worry." She says as she continues talking about the story they were reading.

I slowly start to really relax, feeling my muscles start to loosen after what felt like forever. Rarity was right about another thing: The steam room is amazing to relax the muscles. I idly listen to them in the background, unable to hide the occasional small smile when I found something amusing that they say, either a joke or just something random that I found funny.

The minutes slowly tick by, the steam soaking into my skin as I start to slowly spread myself out a bit more. Of course, as I do this, my hand brushes against Fluttershy's flank, causing her to give a start and a small eep.

Opening my eyes, I jerk my hand back as I give an apologetic look at the shy mare. "Sorry Fluttershy, didn't mean to stretch that far."

She simply shakes her head and smiles softly back. "I-It's ok Drak." She whispers rather softly, almost too soft for me to hear it.

"I'm surprised that caught you off guard Fluttershy. You've been staring at him almost non stop this entire time." Rarity says, causing the shy mare to blush rather deeply.

Now this caught my attention as I glance back at her curiously. The yellow mare was blushing beet red as she looks down, her mane falling over her face as she tries to hide behind it. "You were staring at me?" I ask.

She remains silent, not willing to respond, or too nervous, leaving it to Rarity to reply. "Oh she was, though not too terribly much." She says before looking at her friend. "There's nothing wrong with a bit of looking, as I always say. Besides, he is rather attractive, so all the more reason why she should look I say." She tries to comfort her, but the pegasus just hides a bit more under her mane.

I could feel my own cheeks heating up just a tad, and I don't think it was from the steam. I look back at Fluttershy as she remains hidden before she finally speaks up, if just barely in a whisper. Unable to catch it, I lean in closer. "What was that?"

_{"I was just...curious about your scars healing up."} She whispers again, though this time I can just about hear her.

Raising an eyebrow, I look down at my shoulder and then back at her. "If you wanted to look, you could have just asked. Judging from what I have seen so far, you ponies don't seem to scar at all."

"Oh we do Darling, it's just much easier to hide it when it's under a coat of fur. At least the smaller ones are." Rarity chimes in. "Plus ponies with any sort of large scars like that tend to be very rare, since we haven't been in any sort of conflict in over one thousand years. Luckily for me, I have nary a scar to show, big or small." At this she extends a foreleg and lightly examines it before smiling to herself. Looking back at me as I give her a rather incredulous look, she frowns. "What, a lady has a right to preen over her own beauty every once in a while."

I just chuckle as I look back at Fluttershy. "Anyways Flutters, if you want you can look at my scars, I really don't mind." I comfort her yet again.

She remains silent for a few moments, and just when I thought she was going to stay like that, she slowly turns to look at me, her eyes peeping from under her mane. Seeing her eyes once again makes me nearly swoon from the calming tone she holds around her, but I manage to keep myself under control as I look away, my eyes locking to her mane instead. "If...if it's ok, I...actually want to...um...." She pauses, and I motion for her to continue calmly. "To...touch them...if that's ok with you?"

I blink at this, not really expecting her to ask such a thing. "Uh...sure I guess?" I say.

Thankfully, since she was already on my left side, all I had to do was stretch my arm a bit more and she would be able to get a much better view and feeling of my shoulder. She pauses as I move, and once I stopped, she slowly comes out from behind her mane. Shuffling her hooves to face me, she reaches over, pausing for a moment, and then gently touches my shoulder. Her hoof is soft to the touch as she gently slides it across the shoulder blades, feeling the most likely tense muscles underneath. I watch as she starts tracing the marks on my skin, the fresh pink lines easy enough to follow. As her hoof moves down my arm and a bit to my chest, I can't help but to see the pressure against my skin slowly pale, before the pressure is released as her hoof moves onwards, the movement of her hoof easy to follow with the path she was making against my body.

This goes on for what feels like hours, but it was most likely just a couple of minutes. As she starts sliding her hoof a bit lower, to the end of the marks on my chest, she goes back up, tracing along the top of my shoulder to my back...till her hoof was stopped by the seat I was leaning against. At this she blinks and quickly retracts, causing myself to get brought back to reality as well.

I look up at her as I see that she is once again hiding behind her mane. "So, I take it my injury was up to your standards?" I say, giving a small chuckle to try and lighten the mood and ease the tense that was growing.

She gives a meek nod, and while she doesn't come out of her mane again, I can see her cheeks slowly cooling down a bit. Smiling, and before I could stop myself, I reach over to gently pull her mane to the side. As my fingers brush against her hair, she flinches, causing me to stop. I take a quick glance at her eyes to see if she was ok with me continuing, and when she remained still and didn't object, I pressed on, slowly pushing her mane back to reveal her face. Once her mane was tucked behind her head, I placed my hand on her cheeks, gently cupping her face against my palm. At this moment our eyes locked once again, and I could feel the calming aura slowly getting stronger, washing me over as I too started to calm down. It seemed that Fluttershy sensed this as well as she ever so slowly turns to face me, giving a small, nervous smile back...

"Oh look at you two, so adorable!" We are brought out of our stupor from a squeal by the white mare, causing me to remove my hand from the shy mare, and she quickly pulls away as she looks at the bowl in the center of the room, cheeks flaring up once again. She wasn't the only one, as I could feel myself getting a bit warmed up in the face.

"Really Rarity?" I say, glancing up at her before I too went to looking at the bowl of rocks.

"Oh sorry Dears, I just couldn't help myself. You two are just so CUTE together like that. Like two long lost lovers gazing into each others eyes!" She stats, giving another squee and a small giggling fit.

Of course that just makes it that much harder for me and the pegasus to recover from being so embarrassed. Luckily we didn't have to do much else as the door to the steam room opened, Aloe stepping in.

"Ok fillies. And stallion." She says, adding the last part with a small smile at me. "The room is ready for the three of you!"

"Oh wonderful, I can't wait to have all these sore muscles relaxed once again!" Rarity states, jumping down from her seat and following the pink mare out of the steam.

It takes us a few moments to react, but when we do, I glance over at Fluttershy, who looks back at me. We barely look at each other for a moment before she looks away again, but this time, taking a deep breath, she says, "I-I guess we should go, right?"

I nod in agreement. "I think so too. Besides, I am looking forward to getting that massage." I tell her. Getting up, I pause before extending my hand over to her. "Shall we?"

As she looks back at me, I do my best to give her a comforting if slightly silly smile, hoping to loosen the tension once again from the unicorn's comment earlier. It seems to work, cause she smiles back and gently places her hoof into my hand. I help her up from her seat as she gets on all fours before letting her hoof go, and together we head out of the steam room.

Once outside and the door closed, we quickly follow Aloe and Rarity, catching up to the two mares already chatting about something. From what I could tell it seemed to be just general gossip. It doesn't take much time for the spa pony to lead us to our massage rooms, which was just a few doors ahead of where I went to change.

Walking inside as the curtains close behind us, I look around and see at least five different tables, cushions placed around them as well as a towel over each one. Along with the tables and the basic spa equipment, there were two other ponies as well. The first one is a stallion with an aqua coat and darker aqua mane, and a unicorn as well, while the second pony, to my surprise, is the same as Aloe, but her color scheme was reversed. Instead of a pink coat and blue mane, she has a blue coat and a pink mane. Aloe motions for us to each take a table, and as we do, I noticed one major problem: they were all too small.

Seeing this, the spa mare motions me over to one of them and makes me wait before she gets to work adjusting the size. Turns out the tables are adjustable, a few additions pulled out from under them and adjusted to fit my normal size. "Normally we don't get others besides ponies, but it never hurts to be safe in case of others, such as a minotaur or such." She states, making me nod in understanding.

"Makes sense. In any case, I'm just glad I get to lay on something that fits me." I state. As she finishes, I notice that she gives me a coy smile before turning around and gathering some supplies. It takes me a few moments to realize that what I said could have meant...a few things, causing me to blush a bit more and facepalm myself lightly.

Before I could respond, however, she was already talking to the other two spa ponies that are here. "Soothing, you can take Rarity, Lotus I believe Drak will be needing your talent, he has very sore muscles and you know best on how to deal with such things. I'll be taking Fluttershy. You ponies ok with that?" She tells them before looking at my friends to see if that is ok. Once they all nod, the spa ponies head with their clients, the two unicorns not wasting any time as Rarity sighs out, already laying on the table as the aqua pony starts massaging her back. Fluttershy slowly gets on the table and lays down, Aloe seeming to gently apply her hooves on her haunches as she lets out a content sigh, the pegasus seeming to be more at ease as she smiles.

Leaving just me and the blue mare, I look at her as she smiles at me. "Please lay down so we can start, if you don't mind Mister Drakalian." She says, her smile never wavering. I also couldn't help but notice her voice had a similar if not the same accent as Aloe. I just nod as I carefully lean against the table, and seeing that yes it can indeed support me, I lay down on it, face down as I pull my arms out and under my chin, so I could look up without much effort. I give a nod to let her know I'm ready, and after a few moments I feel two soft hooves placed on my back and slowly press down.

As she starts, I can't help but to marvel at how soft yet firm she was being, and I even let out a small gasp as she gets a really tough spot around my right side against my ribs. The sound causes her to pause as I hear, "Are you alright? That wasn't too hard was it?"

I quickly shake my head as I glance over at her, seeing her worried face. "No, it's just feels amazing." I say, and the slightly dopey look on my face must have been seen, for I see her start to giggle lightly.

As she continues, I hear her speak up again. "So, how are you liking our little town Mister Drakalian?"

"Please, just call me Drak. Much less of a mouthful." I tell her. "As for how the place is...I'm rather enjoying it here. Granted I haven't been to any of these other places that others keep telling me about, like Canterlot or Manehattan and such, so I can't really judge how well this place is compared to the others, but this place is nice."

"Oh jes, the ponies here are so understanding, at least to most of us. There was the whole Zecora incident, but after that they learned to be much more open with others." She replies.

I pause as I let it sink in before continuing. "I've heard a lot about this Zecora. Why was she so feared?" I ask, curious.

As the blue mare moves up to my right shoulder, I hear Rarity speak up, seeming to be listening in on us. "She's a Zebra Darling and sadly most of us at the time were dreadfully scared of her just cause she is different. We even thought she cursed us when we ran into some Poison Joke when we had no idea what it was." I wince slightly as I remember what Twilight said about the plant. "Thankfully after a bit of talking thanks to Applebloom; Applejack's younger sister, we found out who the real culprit was, and she even helped us with a cure that she made to get rid of the jokes it placed on us."

"Not only that, but the treatment, a simple bubble bath, was so amazing and comforting, that we had to ask her to allow us to use it for our spa bath, and she was more than happy to allow us." Continues Aloe. "After that the rest of Ponyville realized that she isn't as bad as we thought, and soon grew to like her company, even if she doesn't always come out of that forest all the time."

I ponder over those words for a few moments before giving a small nod. "Interesting." I simply say, leaning a bit more against my arms as I sigh, another muscle already getting loose under the blue mare's ministrations. Turning around a bit, I see her working diligently at my body, and I notice the small smile she was giving me at the sounds I was making. Of course this causes me to blush, but she just giggles at the reaction.

"I'm glad you are enjoying yourself Drak." She says happily, to which I simply nod. I continue to watch her work for a bit more before I remember what I was going to ask.

"So...Lotus, right?" I ask. She nods in confirmation and I continue. "Can I ask a question?"

"You just did sir." She kids, finishing my right side and walking around to my left, my head following her. "In fact you asked me two questions."

I sigh as I hear the room fill with light laughter from everypony. "Funny." I say, which just gets her to giggle more, he tail flicking against my nose playfully as she passes by my head. Thankfully, as she continues her work on my left side now, she looks at me, waiting for me to continue. "I was wondering if you and Aloe-"

"Jes we are sisters." She replies before I can finish. Seeing my raised eyebrow she explains. "Sorry, we just get asked that question so many times that it's become automatic response."

"And jes we are twin sisters at that." Replies Aloe, already working on Fluttershy's foreleg, the yellow mare sighing, her eyes closed. If I didn't know any better, I would assume she was sleeping.

"And jes, we aren't from Ponyville originally either." Continues the blue mare, eyes narrowing as she focuses on a rather tough spot on my back. Pushing a bit more of her hooves into it, I feel myself tense up, but after some soothing runs with her hooves I slowly start to relax again. Damn she is good!

After a moment of my mind lost in the relaxing feeling, I quickly recall what she just said. "So wait, then where are you from?"

"We are from out of Equestria." She simply says, and after seeing my still curious expression, the blue earth pony just smirks lightly. "As for exactly where, that can be a story for another time."

"We like to keep a few things from others, keeps that air of being...exotic, don't you think?" Finishes Aloe, and when I look at her, I notice that this time she does wink at me, causing me to blush a bit more before turning and covering my face with my arms as I just focused on the massage.

"Sister, you really shouldn't tease the customers so." Lotus says to her sister in a slightly scolding tone, but with more humor behind it than anything else.

"But it's so much fun Lotus." The pink mare giggles. "He just is too easy to get a reaction out of. Plus it helps that he is rather attractive." At this I hear both of them giggle, my cheeks flaring up even more.

Lotus's hooves slowly move up my back on my left side, diligent in their task to relax every muscle they find. As she starts to reach my shoulders, I feel her hooves against my scars, and I also feel her pause for a moment. "Mister-I mean, Drak, I am curious about these scars of yours. How did you get them? They look rather recent."

Blinking my eyes as I look up from my arms, I turn around and can barely see Lotus from the corner of my eye, her blue coat rather close to my head. However judging by where her hooves are, it was obvious what scars she was talking about...since they were the only ones I had anyways. "Those things? Just something I got when I first woke up here. I guess you can say it was their way to greet me." Looking across, I can see Aloe giving me a look of concern, and even the aqua stallion, Soothing I believe, was looking up with a hint of curiosity.

"They don't seem like any sort of mark a pony could cause." The blue mare mutters softly, feeling the lines against my back and slowly tracing them. Realizing she was still working, she quickly goes back to massaging my shoulder, though she was being a bit more gentle on that side now after seeing my scars. "I'm guessing you found one of the inhabitants of the forest, jes?"

I give a small nod. "I did, and you don't have to worry about pushing too hard. I'm already healed up from the encounter. It was...wow, about a month already? Didn't think I was here for so long." I say, my mind wandering at how long it has already been. Before I can focus on that, however, seeing the looks on the other two spa ponies and feeling the last one's hooves still tracing my scars every so often, I went on with explaining briefly how I woke up here along with my meeting with Trixie, before finally telling about the basilisk encounter and how we both survived the attack.

As the minutes tick by, I can see that the spa ponies were very much interested with the story. Aloe was diligent as ever with her task to massage Fluttershy, but I could see that she paused to look at me every so often, her eyes wide the entire time. Even though I couldn't see her sister behind me with how close she is to my head now, I could feel her hooves pause for a moment or two before continuing, letting me know that she is just as caught up in my tale as the pink mare was. Looking at Rarity and Fluttershy, they were both listening carefully as well, but looked to be much more relaxed, probably cause they already heard it.

Finally, I finished with me waking up in the hospital and wrapping it up, just in time for Lotus to finish up my left shoulder. "There, can you flip over please so I can start working on your front?" She asks, and I slowly get up to comply. Even with just my back finished, I felt so much more relaxed than I ever had since I got it.

"Wow Drak, that sounded so dreadful, but at the same time so...heroic." Soothe says softly, looking at me with respect. As he spoke I noticed that he too has a similar accent to the sisters, though not quite the same. "To fight against such odds when you are injured yourself, and to come out on top...I'm very impressed." I smile and give a nod of thanks to him as I look over at Aloe. She has the same look of awe on her face, but when she notices me looking at her, I can't help but see her slowly lid her eyes at me. Looking at Lotus, she too was giving a similar expression, though her cheeks had a tinge of red to them that her sister didn't have.

I raise an eyebrow at this, to which they just giggle as I lay back, my head now looking up at the ceiling, my arms resting on my side. Once in place, Lotus begins pressing against my stomach first, lightly easing the muscles around there as she starts to hum an unknown tune.

After a couple of minutes of her humming, she finally speaks up again. "I must say, I too am impressed. It always gladdens me to see ponies helping others in need. I mean, you're not a pony, but the meaning is still the same." I just give a slight nod of understanding as she continues.

"It almost reminds me of this one story with the princess and the gargoyle. Ahh, such a romantic tale, about this majestic unicorn who..." She starts to say, and begins telling the story. I smile as I listen, finding it to be rather interesting, and indeed romantic as she gets to the part when she meets the stallion that appears from nowhere.

As the minutes slowly tick by, with her telling the story, I can't help but to slowly relax a bit more, my eyes closing as I fall into a meditative state, feeling nearly at peace with myself. However, after a while I begin to feel that something is rather off. It takes me a moment but I realize that Lotus wasn't massaging my stomach anymore, her hooves paused on me. Opening my eyes, I look over at her questioningly, but to my surprise she isn't looking at me...or rather my face.

Following her gaze, I slowly see that she is looking at my lower body...most specifically, at my crotch that was now exposed cause of the towel falling to the side a bit.

My eyes go wide as I just freeze up, not sure what to do. Of course my relaxed mood is quickly replaced with nervous tension as I feel myself tense, my body locked up with being stuck as it is or to cover myself. Lotus was quicker than me, however, and she reaches over to my groin. However, instead of her going for the obvious, she goes for my towel and pulls it over me adjusting it a bit more so that it wouldn't happen again.

She looks over at me with a smile, but frowns as she sees my flushed face. Realizing what was happening, she leans closer to my head and whispers into my ear. "It's fine Drak, no need to be worried or nervous."

"But I-" I try to say, only for her to stop me and continue. This time her eyes catch my own and I can feel a calming aura once again as she just smiles at me, her eyes telling me that it is indeed all fine and to not worry.

"Like I said, it's fine. I've had my plenty share of such incidences before, and while it is embarrassing at first, it's just what happens." She says softly, her voice giving a sense of comfort. "Besides, I've also had way worse. You should hear the ones that get really relaxed and their minds wander to much more...naughty things." She giggles at the last part as I blush a bit more, but her words ring true for me. My eyes at this point flick away, unable to hold eye contact for much longer as the calming feeling was getting overwhelming.

Taking a couple of shaky breathes and thanks to her words and the emotions I was feeling from her, I finally calm myself down enough to give her a small smile. Seeing her caring smile looking back at me, I reach my hand over and grab one of her hooves resting on my chest giving it a small squeeze. "Thanks Lotus." I simply said, unable to really come up with anything else.

She just smiles lightly as she hears this. "Of course. I don't wish my clients to be stressed out. This is a spa, you are meant to relax, not feel stress." She says, and then she pulls her hoof from my grasp and gently pokes my forehead with it. "Now start relaxing silly and let me finish your massage." She giggles.

I can't help but to chuckle back, the tension in the air already lifting as I lean back. Taking a quick glance around the room, I'm even more happy to see that the others didn't really notice what went on between the two of us. "Of course, and you are doing an amazing job." I close my eyes and sigh, feeling her resume her work along my chest and stomach.

She giggles before slowly continuing her song, humming the tune as she massages me, and I let myself just fully enjoy the moment.

"So Drak, how have you enjoyed your first spa trip?" Rarity asks, a curious look on her face as we soak in the tub.

After we had finished our massages, which took a good while, we were brought to a large room with what seemed to be a hot tub in the middle. After a few adjustments were made I was sitting in the tub along with Rarity, both of us relaxing as we soaked in the hot water. Fluttershy was laying on one of the cushions that were against the wall of the room, Aloe gently preening her wings, the pegasus blushing a bit but still smiling as she relaxes. Soothing was busy filing Rarity's horn, his magic floating the tool as he slides it back and forth across it, the white mare smiling as she gently leans back, hooves against the edge of the tub.

As for me, Lotus offered to continue the full body massage with a shoulder and neck massage, saying that the position would make it much easier to do if I was upright. Considering how well she did my body already, it was hard to say otherwise, so now she was pressing her hooves against the sides of my neck and the top of my shoulders, giving small presses and even squeezes, the chords of my neck relaxing as well.

Glancing at the white mare, I respond to her question with a simple smile. "Surprisingly great. I'll be honest, I was nervous first coming here, but once here it was just...amazing." I tell her, sighing as once again another knot is removed from my body. "I feel so relaxed and at peace right now I just...almost speechless."

The ponies around me chuckle at this as Lotus lightly turns my head, stretching my neck out a bit before she resumes the shoulders. "I'm glad you are enjoying yourself here Drak." She says, a giggle escaping from her muzzle. "It's always a pleasure to meet new ponies-er creatures. Especially ones with a different body than ours. With only ponies living here we don't get much else in clients."

I give a very slight nod at this, not wanting to interrupt her massaging me. "Of course." I simply say, once again falling into a more meditative trance, eyes closed as my breathing steadies.

There is silence for a while as we just enjoy ourselves before I hear the fashion pony speak up. "So Drak. Would you be willing to join us for next week as well?" She asks.

I keep my eyes closed as I think it over. On one hand, I didn't want to bother them so much and intrude their personal time. Along with that, I wasn't sure if I could go here every week, it seemed to be a bit much for me. On the other hand, it is very relaxing and has helped me amazingly with my sore muscles and such. Plus...I didn't have much else to do during my time here, besides training of course.

"If it's not a problem with either of you, then I'm ok with coming back again." I tell her, to which I hear a small squee...from two sources to my surprise.

"Fantastic! I'm already excited for our next trip!" She exclaims, making me sigh and then chuckle.

We all fall silent once again, and this time my mind focuses on the feeling of Lotus's hooves on my shoulders, or whenever she gently presses against my neck or turns my head. Once again I marvel how strong and firm she is, yet soft and gentle, each move with a mark of carefulness to it while still being tough and certain with her moves. My arms, which mirrored Rarity's forelegs on the edge of the tub, stretch back a bit more, and I feel my fingers graze over something a bit fuzzy.

Thinking it was Lotus, I quickly pull my hand back before anything awkward happened, but to my surprise I find it back against my hands. Opening a single eye and glancing to my side, I see that it was indeed Lotus's tail, gently resting against my fingers. I try to take a glance at her face to see if she noticed, but she stops me and turns my head yet again. Hearing her hum and her tail twitch whenever I move a finger, I just guess that she does know, so I don't put much thought into it, closing my eyes once again and smiling lightly to myself.

I start to gently brush over her tail hairs a bit, feeling the soft fur as I sigh, content with myself and just overall relaxed. After a good few minutes, I finally feel her pause on my shoulder, and her hoof gently tracing something on my left side, where all the scars are.

Giving a small smirk, I say, "Still hadn't had enough of my scars Lotus?"

She doesn't say anything, but I do feel her pause for a moment before she speaks up. "N-no, I just...are these the only scars you have?" She asks.

Curious, I open my eyes and look over at her, noticing that she was staring at my left shoulder still. "Yes, unless I have others that I don't know of. But from what I can tell that's all I had." I say.

She narrows her eyes and leans in a bit closer, seeming to be staring at something on my shoulder...something other than the scars. "Then what...what is this?" She asks.

I try to look down at where she was pointing, but it was hard to turn my head enough to see that. Noticing that I couldn't see, the blue mare motions for me to wait as she heads over to a counter, opening a drawer and looking through it. After a few seconds she comes back with a mirror and, holding it in her mouth, turns it so I can see it easier.

I look at the mirror at my shoulder, still unsure what I was looking at. All I could see were the jagged lines and holes from the fight with the serpent. "I just see the scars I had with the creature, but I don't-"

"Right there." She says, voice muffled by the handle of the mirror. She points with her hoof and I look a bit closer, eyes narrowing. At this point Rarity and the aqua stallion were even looking at me curiously.

I still can't see much else, only jagged lines and cuts from the large bite I got. However, the longer I stared, the more I realized there was more than just that. Between a few of the cuts were other marks, these ones much straighter than the ones from the Basilisk...straighter and more faded as if they were there much longer than the fight I just got.

My eyes slowly widen as I look at them more, my mind trying to figure out how I got these other marks. "But...but I don't remember those..." I say softly.

Lotus keeps tracing a few of them, trying to see how many there are. After six she stops counting and just looks back at me, just as confused as I was. "You don't know how you got these scars?"

I shake my head. "No idea."

"You do have amnesia, so it could be from some other time.." Rarity says, getting us to glance at the two unicorns, Soothing seeming to have just finished filing her horn. She ponders over it for a few moments as she looks at my shoulder as well, before she suddenly looks back at the spa stallion. "Soothing dear, do you think that wrinkles spell you know could trace the marks on him?"

He ponders this as he looks at my shoulder. "It's only used to spy the worst of the wrinkles to better apply the cream, but I could give it a try." He says as he walks over to me, his horn lighting up. Giving me a look to see if I would let him, I nod and his horn shines a bit brighter.

Soon my shoulder starts to glow a bit, a gentle green color covering the left side of my shoulder. Glancing at the mirror, I see parts of it start to slowly change color, and soon there seemed to be a map of colors on my shoulder.

"Now, the red should be the most recent of the wrinkles, or in this case scars, and the closer they get the green, the older they are." He explains, to which I nod. Seeing the marks, it was easy to see that the Basilisk marks were all bright red, almost out shining everything else. Seeing how bright they were, Soothing tones down the red ones, leaving behind something I was not expecting to see at all.

On my shoulder, where I assumed it would be green with perhaps a few small marks, was a plethora of lines and crosses, all of them of different shades ranging from pink and blue to light green and aqua. I could feel the ponies eyes on me as they stared with as much surprise as me, my eyes tracing all the marks the that I could see. Most of them, thankfully seemed to be rather small, as if they were from just falling wrong on something, leaving a normal cut. Those were the one's that I could barely see. Others, however, while not as red or pink as the one I already have, were still bright. Not only bright...but long.

Reaching over, I start to trace one rather large one across my shoulder. It was a thick line that was going straight, moving from the top of my shoulder to both front and back of my body. My fingers slide along the front, slowly following it. Soon it dips into the part that's in the water, and I stand up to keep following it. Down my fingers go, sliding across my chest and reaching my stomach, where it finally stops.

I just stare at the mark, baffled with what could have caused it, when I feel hooves on my back slowly tracing marks as well. "There is more here." Lotus states, her hoof sliding and tracing almost another dozen or so lines. She then moves up to the top of my shoulder where I was tracing the large scar and starts moving her hoof down, following it.

I was expecting for it to go down an inch or two, but once again I am surprised to find that she keeps on sliding down, the mark getting lower and lower till it was a good six inches down my back when she finally stops.

We were all silent as we stared at my glowing shoulder, the spell fading as it returns to normal. Soothing sits there, his head tilted to the side as he just looks baffled, Lotus giving a similar look, though her mouth was slightly open with surprise. Rarity wasn't much better as she just gaps at me, even getting up to better look at the marks that she could see. "Drakalian...what...how did you..,how?"

"That one mark...I don't know what could have caused it...or how you lived with that damage on your body." Lotus agrees, a hoof to her mouth as she tries to hide her shock.

I just stare down at my shoulder a bit longer, my mind a bit lost with what I just saw. However, there is one thing that I did know. Looking back up at the white mare, she looks back at me and gives a small nod, not even needing me to say anything to know what I was thinking.

It's time I made a call with Celestia and Luna once again.

Just something I thought I may put in, this is what I think Detective Tuffs would look like

...

Shut up, I think he's adorable!