“I understand the concern,” Eric said. “Perhaps I can remove the shadow from her first and then someone can take her to a veterinarian?” After a moment he frowned. “That is, assuming I can still succeed at that. I was warned my powers may not function within this city.”

“Awesome! Hey, Wave…” Tom started, picking her up again and smiling. “A bathtub, a big one, and water. First bit of water since that pool of yours we’ll be able to use, and I’ll be able to clean up, too.” Getting her back in his arms, he turned to Eric. “The shadow thingy told you that? Huh. If you could, you know, get rid of the evil voice thingy… it might not be that bad. And the eyes, they’re kinda creepy. Least mine are still the same color.”

Wave's expression brightened at the temptation of incoming water. "Will it be cold or warm?" She looked to Flash, who made an upward motion. "I haven't had a warm bath in… I don't even remember. What are we waiting for?"

Eric nodded, “it said it would depend how strong my will is, and that the festival would be dangerous to me. I would love to never hear from the evil voice again, despite it’s helpfulness thus far. It’s clearly a dick.”

Flash let out a soft huff, but smiled. "This way. I'll show you to the baths and you can all stay there until I fetch Shining Armor. I don't know much about banishing shadow magic or stuff like that. I just keep ponies safe, which is why you have to stay with me, alright?"

Laughing, Tom followed Flash to the baths, looking forward to getting clean. “I’ll take a cold bath at this point, I’m used to cleaning every day… I reek something awful now.” Turning to Flash and Eric, he paused. “You’re gonna uncuff him while he bathes, Flash?”

Flash looked between Tom and Wave, then to Eric. He let out a little sigh. "Well, you're the most harmless creatures of ultimate tyranny I've met so far." He put a hoof behind his head. "Still, they're trusting me to do the right thing, so, for now? Please." He started leading the way out of the jails, back up into the castle proper.

Eric followed along, nodding. “I would appreciate them being removed for the bath at least, and… just between us, I’m not so sure they’re doing much to limit what I can do. They’re a useful prop for the moment to keep everypony else from panicking, so I’m glad to have them for now.”

Tom glanced at Eric for a moment before internally sighing. Letting the ponies know that their manacles probably had no effect might not be the best thing to do. “We’re not really creatures of ultimate tyranny, so of course we’d be harmless, Flash.”

Flash chuckled a bit as he ascended the stairs until he arrived at the right door. "The last pony they said used to be human was the most harmless little filly I ever met. Her marefriend made up for it, little spitfire she was." He opened the door and led on in to the stately looking bathing room. "Only Princess Cadance and Shining Armor usually use this one, so it's safe in here. We guards have a different place." He gestured, pointing out soaps and shampoos and where the faucets could be found. "Now, I really should get back to things. Shining Armor will be by in a moment and he can make judgement calls."

Wave stopped paying attention about halfway in. With the blessed tubs in sight, she suddenly pulled from Tom's grip, flopping to the ground only to start scooting herself along the smooth tiles quickly. She had the water flowing, both hot and cold, in rushing torrents. "Yeah yeah, thanks!"

Eric shifted his wrists to smoke for a moment, freeing himself from the manacles long enough to take his shirt off before putting them back on, and struggling to remove the rest of his clothing, despite his face and body language quietly betraying his embarrassment at having an audience for such.

Tom was chuckling at Wave’s reaction, stripping his own shirt and tossing it aside with the saddlebags. “So… one bath. This might be a little awkward,” he muttered, getting out of his pants and looking at the fur covering his legs, curious as to where it stopped.

Flash was gone by the time Eric slipped from his cuffs, thankfully, leaving them to their privacy. Wave cared little for things like clothes, not having any on herself. She pulled herself up and flopped into the lukewarm tub with a loud ahh as she sank into the water. She began to make bubbles as she went beneath the surface, but she looked happy despite being submerged and away from air.

Eric slipped in as far from Wave as could be, turning his back to her to give the newlyweds as much privacy as the situation allowed. “Come, Poppy. You need a bath as well. Let us hope wet shadowwolf fur is better smelling than the usual wet dog smell.” He struggled to wash himself and his pet with the manacles on, but made do, patiently.

Noting how Eric took the far side, Tom glanced over to Wave before dumping the last of his belongings aside and sliding into the water near Wave, letting out a sigh at the feeling of the warm water. The fur came up almost to his waist it seemed, and he watched as it seemed to gently wave a bit in the water from the small disturbances in it. “This is nice…” he delightfully sighed before dunking himself completely under for a few seconds.

Wave popped up from the depths. For as clumsy as she was on land, her body seemed to move through the water with scarcely any effort at all. She smiled at Eric. "Smile. It's nice to be in water." She approached him and grabbed some soap on the way. "I'll get your back."

Eric blushed back at her, nodding, and making a point of relaxing. “Thanks, it’s hard enough to get without these on. The water does feel nice, though I prefer hotter for baths. Still, it’s a lovely contrast from the past few days, regardless.”

Popping back up from the water, Tom glanced over to Eric and Wave for a moment before he began cleaning himself off, eyes constantly darting back to Wave to examine her in what was, arguably, her natural element finally. He found his cheeks burning slightly as he thought once more on how attractive he found her, despite the alienness of it all, and was once more reminded of their odd, impromptu union, looking at his own fur covered legs as he did so.

Her tail reached out, slapping the faucet and turning down the flow of cold water even as her hooves worked the soap over Eric's back diligently. "You should have just said so. The temperature doesn't matter much to me either way. Hot, cold, it's still a lovely bath. The tub's nice and clean too, that's a change, but I do miss the glowing peace of the pool a little, but I get friends in trade."

Eric glanced over at the faucet, a bit impressed with her dexterity with what appeared to be a big, awkward limb. “Thanks. I… do tend to err on the side of letting others get their way, and just accepting things as they end up being. I’d rather not fight someone over something unimportant, like water temperature, even if it turns out they wouldn’t mind doing it my way.” Eric finished up with Poppy’s scrubbing and bid her get out, finding as reasonable of a place as possible to shake it off.

Hair full of shampoo, Tom made his way over to Wave and Eric, having been listening in to them both. “The glowing of the pool was different, but this is much better. Just wait till you see more. And Eric, you say that now, but you’re more than willing to do what you can when it’s something you really find important, so letting smaller things go? Not so important in the big picture, I’d think. I tend to let others walk over me at times,” he offered up a bit of personal information as well as he started gently lathering up Wave’s mane for her.

Wave snorted softly as she nodded at Tom. "If I disagreed, I'd tell you to sod off, but we wouldn't stop being friends." She hugged Eric firmly before letting him go and turning to Tom. "Now your turn." She made a swirly motion with a hoof. "Let's see your back. Nopony's leaving without a sudsy back."

Eric laughed a bit. “You remind me a bit of my own wife, Wave. And there’s definitely something to being so… upfront. But I learned long ago that I’m overly sensitive to other’s discomfort, and much more resistant to my own. When getting my own way is so often less pleasant to me than letting others have their way, it’s only natural that I would err that way. At least when it’s not important. Sometimes it’s worth the pain.”

“Just gotta finish… there, done,” he remarked, sudding up the last of her mane before turning around, listening quietly to Eric’s words. “I can relate to that a bit, Eric. It might have played a small part in me and Wave ending up married, but… I don’t think I regret it one bit, not so far anyways,” he warmly remarked, sighing as all of those knots and bruises felt so much better the longer he remained in the water. “Or how I ended up with pony parts, which is sorta weird. I mean, my legs look like a street sign now!”

Wave only just noticed she had been shampooed. "I'm so excited to be in water, I didn't even see you doing that when I had water down below.” She shook out her mane, sending some soap every which way before she moved in on Tom and got to soaping him up. "Can we just stay here? I think I could be happy here."

A new voice joined the conversation from the door. "I'm glad to hear you're enjoying yourself." Shining Armor approached the group, eyes locked on the shadow-tainted eyes, the green irises and purple streaming dark energy. "I'm Shining Armor, husband of Princess Cadance. And you three are?"

“I am Eric Wolfgang,” Eric began, bowing as best he could without standing and exposing himself. “Fledgeling shadow wizard, as it were. I thank you for the use of your bath and the opportunity to explain ourselves. The canine there is Poppy, and as I have pointed out to others, I plan to de-shadow her again as soon as we can obtain the services of a veterinarian. She was injured before her transformation, and I suspect the injuries will return when her form does. And regardless she should be checked for any long term harm from being a more frightening shadow beast for who knows how many years before we found her.”

Chuckling quietly, Tom turned to look at Wave first. “I think he might have a problem with us stealing his bathroom, Wave,” he joked before turning to Shining Armor. “It’s nice to meet you, Prince Armor, I am Tom Sawyer, a human of nothing particularly remarkable, unless you count part pony now as remarkable…” he waved a hoof for a moment, chuckling. “And this here is, my wife, the lovely siren Wave Swimmer,” he added, the word wife a bit hesitant as he felt unsure about the commitment he’d jumped into so rapidly.

Wave raised a hoof at Shining Armor as she was introduced. Shining Armor nodded slowly and looked quite uncertain. "I can activate the crystal heart? That should expel all shadow forces from the city, though it's a little tricky to do without Cadance in the city."

The voice whispered softly, ”Don't let him do that, not if you value living. It would break us.”

Eric raised his hands, palms out toward Shining. “That shouldn’t be necessary, though it’s probably best for everyone that you have the option available. I’m not sure it would be good for my or Poppy’s health, so if you could hold off so long as we’re well behaved, I would appreciate it.”

A somewhat nervous voice called out from the hallway, "Have you defeated it yet, sir?"

Shining sighed softly before calling back, "It's not that simple."

"What's not simple? It's Sombra, reincarnated in a new body! Make it go away!"

Next Chapter: 21 - Like a Fairy Tale Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 45 Minutes