I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. The ceiling above me was unfamiliar, the comfortable bed I found myself in was unfamiliar, and someone put my robe on me while I was asleep.

I sat up in the bed, finding nobody around in the rather luxurious room. “Just how long have I been asleep?” Immediately visible was an open door leading to a bathroom. “Might as well.” I got out of the bed, my robe bringing some of the warmth with me, and went in to take care of business.

There wasn’t much in me that needed to get out, but I got out what was there anyways. After cleaning up and putting my robe back on, I turned to leave when I caught sight of my reflection. The first thing to catch my attention was my shiny hair. I swung a section of it around and ran a hand through it. It felt very soft and very clean. It smelled of a rich vanilla, and there wasn’t a tangle to be found. The rest of me felt very clean as well.

I had to go back to the spa at some point, even if only for a hair treatment. Those spa ponies must know what they’re doing if they were able to do all this themselves, and without hands at that. My hair was amazing, my skin was cleaner and softer than ever, I’m fairly certain I got massaged while I was out, and I had no idea what time it was, so I found a clock back in the bedroom.

It showed 10:00. A look at the closed curtains showed some sunlight, so it had to be morning. I think I was asleep for 18-20 hours. That’s got to be two days worth of sleep right there. Talk about exhaustion.

I was about to go through the closed door when I saw a box with my name in front of it. Interest piqued, I picked up the box. It was very light. I opened it and saw a set of my regular clothes in there, along with my boots, all cleaned up. A bit of digging also revealed my choker, which reminded me of its absence around my neck.

Clean clothes. I was happy just for this little thing right now. And I could put my robe in the box for easy transport once I changed, too. A second glance inside revealed an envelope at the edge, which I pulled out and opened. Inside was a folded piece of paper, which I took out and unfolded. Something golden fell out of it, but I was more interested in the first piece of paper. It was a letter, and the letters were not fluctuating, but solid Equestrian, and very nicely written at that.

Dear Yang Xiao Long,

I wish to continue extending my, my sister, Equestria, and the world’s gratitude to you for defeating Tirek, even if it was the most brutal and messy fight in Equestria’s history since an attempted minotaur invasion 300 years ago.

Luna and I have decided to grant you free access to Canterlot Castle. You may come at any time of day and go anywhere, even to the forbidden sections. This freedom comes with a lot of responsibility on your part though, and can be revoked at any time, though based on what I’ve heard about you, that is highly unlikely to happen.

In addition to free access to the castle, this also grants you free access to all events at the castle and on its grounds, even if you aren’t on the invitee list. You can also use any service you want or need at the castle.

The golden ticket included with this letter is necessary for your first entry to the castle and also serves as a one way train ticket to Canterlot, and you can use it at any time. Be sure to come straight to myself or Luna first though.

I hope we can have a cleaner and more casual visit in the near future. Sundays are a good time to visit, as I’m scheduled off on those days, barring the rare emergency.

Sincerely,
Princess Celestia.

I was about to pick up the golden ticket when I noticed something else on there, the writing a bit different. Probably a different writer.

P.S. Before you go to Canterlot, please tell me. I know my way around there and you can visit my family. I’m sure they would like to meet you.

Also, I am unable to clean the Ember Celica for you, due to their magic immunity. They’re on your desk, along with your new fountain and some cleaning supplies.

-Twilight Sparkle

After checking for anything else after Twilight’s added postscript, I picked up the golden ticket. It was fairly plain, if a bit large. In fact, it didn’t seem to have much detail at all. I’m sure the ponies in the know knew what to look for though.

I put the ticket and letter back together and set them aside before taking out the clean clothes. Once I double checked that all the windows and doors were closed, I changed out of the comfortable robe and into my normal clothes. I liked them better than the combat outfit because they covered more of me and I felt less exposed. They were also simpler in almost all their aspects, especially putting them on and taking them off.

Once I was changed and the robe was boxed up with the letter and ticket, I left the unfamiliar room and, to nobody’s surprise, found myself in an unfamiliar hallway. There were no signs, so I decided to go left. That’s where I saw some stairs going down, anyways.

I went down the stairs and through a door. On the other side, I found myself at the spa lobby. Lotus, at least I think that’s the name for the blue one, noticed me. “Good morning, Yang” she greeted. “We were wondering when you would wake up.”

Nice alliteration. “Good morning to you too” I greeted back. “So, am I good to go or is there something I need to do?”

“We do have something for you.” Lotus left the lobby for a moment before coming back with a cheese omelette, diced potatoes, and a fork on a plate held in a small potholder in her mouth. She set it on the counter, and I could weakly feel my stomach growling. “We were going to give you breakfast earlier, but you slept through it, so we saved this for you. We even kept it warm.”

I held back my eagerness so I could politely grab the plate and take a seat. I stabbed a few of the potato cubes and took a bite. They were lightly salted, lightly seasoned, a tad soft, and gone in under a minute. I had no idea just how hungry I was until now. I wanted to eat the omelette more properly, but my hunger was a beast, and it broke through the walls of etiquette I had in place. I hardly had any time to savor the flavor of the omelette, I was eating it so fast. What I did taste of it was good, so kudos to the chef.

After the omelette was gone, I began scraping at the plate with the fork to pick up little bits of melted cheese. Once it was as clean as I was going to get it, I returned the fork and plate to Lotus. “Thanks. It was good.”

She accepted the plate, putting it out of sight. “You’re welcome. I hope you can come visit us under more peaceful circumstances later.”

“Yeah, I might.” I picked up my boxed robe and letter. “I do like how clean you two got me, and I feel great.”

“That’s good to hear. Have a good day, Yang.”

“You too.” I left the spa and went outside. The weather was beautiful, ponies were going about their business as if nothing happened, the air was warm, and about a hundred feet in front of me was a large table lined with chairs. One of the spots had one of those metal domes on it, along with my name. Pinkie Pie was right next to the table, dressed like a waiter and wearing a thin fake moustache.

Suffice to say, I was curious and walked over to the table. “Hello, Yang” Pinkie said in a faux high class voice. “I welcome you to your unsurprise-thank-you-for-stopping-Tirek party. Please, have a seat.” She pulled out a chair for me. “And please, let me take your box.”

“Promise you’ll give it back?” I valued the contents of the box quite a bit.

“Whenever you’re ready to leave, I will make sure you get it back.” She sounded quite sincere, so I handed over the box and she somehow stuffed it in her mane. How did she do that?

Could I learn how to do that? I mean, I am strong, so I could carry a decently loaded backpack if I needed to, but being able to store stuff in my hair like that would be an amazing skill.

I took the offered seat and Pinkie lifted the dome off the table, revealing a double layered dome shaped plain cheesecake with a red velvet cake crust, already in ten slices. Before I could do anything, Pinkie was already at work putting the slices onto plates, revealing chunks of strawberries inside the cake. The large lower layer was set on one side of the plate while the small upper layer was taken off and set in the opposite direction next to the lower part. It was a neat trick and actually made for a pretty cool effect.

“Cheesecake’s on, everypony!” Pinkie called out. A moment later, the ponies I’d come to know best since I’d come here showed up and started taking their seats at the table. There were ten of us total: myself, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle.

“Really, Pinkie?” I asked her. “A party?”

“Yep. It is only appropriate to have a party after such a big thing as Tirek’s defeat. Normally, I would throw a big surprise party, but I Pinkie Promised not to throw one for you after I scared you with the Welcome Party. I had to think quite a bit on how to throw a party for you, and then it hit me like a cream pie to the face: I just had to throw a smaller, quieter party, so I did just that. Do you like it?”

I looked over the gathering we had here. It was small, there weren’t any big surprises, and it felt nice. There was just one thing on my mind. “Yes, but why out here in the middle of the street?” A brown stallion walked by, waved to me, and I waved back.

“So you could see it as soon as you left the spa, silly. Are you going to try the cheesecake?”

Now that my stomach had some food in it, it had the energy to tell not just myself, but everypony around that I needed more food. I picked up the fork on my plate, cut off a piece of the smaller part, and took a bite. It was delicious, and the strawberry chunks were simply perfect in their texture and flavor. So I took another bite, noticing, but not really caring that everypony else at the table was eating theirs as well.

Twilight spoke up when I had just finished the smaller piece of my cheesecake. “So Yang, did you read the letter that was in your box?”

“Yes. I read every letter of the letter.” Some hooves met their owners’ faces. “I’ll probably hold off on going to Canterlot for a bit though. I need some time to settle back down after yesterday. The fight was yesterday, right?”

“Yes, it was. Today’s Wednesday.”

“Alright.” I turned to Sweetie Belle’s friends. “You two are still coming for the sleepover on Friday, right?”

“Yep” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo said at the same time.

“Alright.” I turned back to Twilight. “Since you seem to know everything Twilight, what can you suggest I do for regular exercise? Luna told me I should do some in case I have to fight again.”

“I suggest you ask Rainbow and Applejack for help with that. I may know what makes a good exercise regimen, but they know how to make one that works for you.”

I turned to Applejack and Rainbow. Applejack gave a friendly smile and nod while Rainbow grinned with a serious look on her face.

“Alright. Rarity, I’m going to need some new clothes for this.”

“Say no more” Rarity said. “I’ve really been thinking and dreaming about making some new clothes for you anyways. I’ve even come up with some designs already. I was going to run them past you yesterday, but then Tirek showed up. Would today work?”

“Sure. At least once we’re done here.” I turned to Sweetie Belle and her friends, a thought having occurred to me. “Shouldn’t you three be in class right now?”

“Nope” Sweetie Belle said. “There are no classes today because of Tirek’s attack yesterday.”

“Oh. That makes sense.” I turned back to Twilight after taking a bite of the cheesecake. “Twilight, could you come to the boutique to share the outfit you magicked up for me last week when we were testing my strength and such?”

“Sure” Twilight said. “I’m only happy to help a friend help another friend.”

“Thanks.” I continued with my cheesecake, listening in on the various conversations around the table. While I observed everyone, something came up in the back of my mind. It was small and didn’t interfere all that much with the bits of conversation I partook in, but it was persistent, never really vanishing. I had no idea what it was.

One more thing to deal with, I guess.

The party lasted for a while, Pinkie somehow providing us with drinks, until Rainbow had to leave for weather duty. After that, everyone else started leaving until it was just myself, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Pinkie Pie. The lightish red mare insisted that she would take care of the cleanup and wished the rest of us a good day, returning my box before I left.

“That was one of the quietest Pinkie parties I’ve been to for a while” Rarity said as we walked towards the boutique. “I rather enjoyed it. What about you, Yang?”

“It was nice, but I’m still not sure why Pinkie threw it in the middle of the street and why nobody around us seemed to care” I answered.

“It’s something she does from time to time, though not usually as quiet as yours was.”

The rest of the walk to the boutique was filled with talk about new outfits. Rarity had come up with ideas for business outfits, casual outfits, and various formal dresses.

It went unspoken, but it was clear by my body language to both Rarity and Sweetie Belle that I was not looking forward to the dresses or skirts. I knew plenty of girls and women back on Earth that regularly wore them, but I was not one of them. I mean, yeah, my robe has a skirt with it, but it’s not something I wear outside and I had to put it on out of necessity the first time.

We found Twilight sitting on the front porch of the boutique. She had saddlebags on her sides, but they didn’t appear to have much in them. “Hello again” she greeted.

“Hello, Twilight” Rarity said as we walked up to the visiting alicorn. “I presume you have something for me?”

“Yes. Can we talk more inside?”

“Of course. Just let me use the little filly’s room first. I might have had a bit too much to drink at the party.”

“Sure. I’ll wait downstairs.”

Twilight was the last of us to enter the boutique. I looked at the pedestal with mirrors on one side of it and just knew that, at some point, I’d be up there in a dress or an outfit that had a skirt with it.

I suddenly felt really motivated to just go out and exercise sometime soon. Of course, I’d need some different clothes for that. My regular outfit was good for day to day stuff and even hard work, and it did have plenty of flex and give in the right areas, but I’d rather have something else for working out.

I went upstairs to my room with my box and sat down at the desk. Pierce the Heavens was right there in the corner, the water still following the invisible spirals below the drill. I took some time to admire it before looking at the Ember Celica in their gauntlet form. They were dirty. So very dirty. There were also a bunch of cleaning supplies there. Water, metal polish (safe for paint and fabrics as well), sanitizer, a few rolls of paper towels, a towel, and a few washcloths. There were also a number of small handheld tools as well.

I set the box aside, sat down, and used some paper towels to move the gauntlets onto the towel. Before I started cleaning them, I made sure to take the bands of red shells out. I did not want to accidentally blast something to bits around here, even if I would be safe. The shells, despite being partially exposed, were completely clean. Well, except for a little smudge of something on one of them, but that was easily cleaned off with a slightly wet paper towel.

After putting the shells away, I put one of the gauntlets on the towel and started wiping the blood and dirt off of it. I got a lot of it off with a couple wet paper towels, but I could see places where the stuff had gotten that would require some disassembly to get at. Great.

I started looking around the mostly clean gauntlet for a way to take it apart. I’d have to be careful and keep track of what went where so I could put it back together. As much as I don’t like to fight, I’d also hate to not have them on my arms. I’ve grown used to their presence, and being able to defend others with them is nice. They’re also the most advanced weaponry in this world, as far as I knew. I could only imagine what could happen if a country with ill intent got them.

After a few minutes of searching, I eventually noticed something on the inside of the gauntlet: a small slider, slightly recessed just behind where the shells go. I reached in with one of my nails (which I now noticed had a bit of a shine to them) and slid it. Nothing happened until I twisted the furthest back section, which came off with a bit of force.

“Hm.” In the area where the sections overlapped was a bit more grime to clean off. I took to it with another damp paper towel and set the removed portion aside once it was fully cleaned. After I’d taken the next portion off, I decided to take it as far as I could with the simple disassembly.

I wound up with five large pieces, four of which needed further cleaning. I wasted no time on the task, but I also made sure to be thorough. The Ember Celica were robust and tough, but any debris in it could cause problems, and if it was something that could decay, stink.

Up next on the cleaning regiment was sanitation. I read the back of the bottle of sanitizer, and it said that direct and prolonged contact with skin, fur, hooves, claws, or feathers could cause mild chemical and/or magical burns.

That sounded like some powerful stuff. It also made me wonder if my inability to get burned covered those types of burns as well. If nothing else, I had my aura to protect me.

As I covered a washcloth with the sanitizer, I began to wonder why Twilight would give me such a strong sanitizer. Another glance at the front showed it to be industrial strength and hospital grade. Well, whoever made this stuff certainly knew what they were doing, but, eh, why think about it? Those bacteria and viruses that might be on my gauntlets needed to go away.

While I was sanitizing the pieces, I wondered how something that could cause burns from prolonged contact was also hospital grade. It didn’t make any sense.

It took about 15 minutes for me to sanitize every bit of the gauntlet that I could. I could feel the aura around my hand tingling as well, almost like it was dunked in soda. The tingling went away a moment after setting the sanitizing cloth down. A fast inspection of my hand revealed it to be unharmed in any way.

Aura is awesome.

I moved on to the next task: polishing the pieces. I took a fresh cloth and attempted to pour a small amount of the polish onto it. I was quickly reminded of a freshly opened glass ketchup bottle with how thick and slow the silver colored stuff was. I was getting bored waiting for it to come out, so I turned the bottle around to read the back. Apparently, this stuff, if ingested, could cause mild indigestion. It also suggested adding water before use.

I guess I should read these things more often.

Armed with new knowledge, I decided to change tactics. I dampened one of the washcloths and rubbed it in a bit of the stuff that had slowly oozed out and was slowly oozing back into the upright bottle. On the damp cloth, it shone. Thank goodness the sun wasn’t shining in the room right now. The glare from the polish on the cloth was very bright just from the room light alone.

I turned the glare away from me by turning the washcloth over and gently applying it to a piece of the Ember Celica. I sincerely hoped that the shine on the gauntlet would not blind anyone, including myself. Especially myself.

After I’d gotten every part of the section, I slowly removed the cloth. The piece had a beautiful shine to it that was not blindingly bright. Looking between it and it's filthy counterpart on the other gauntlet, I took a bit of pride in my work. I decided to use that pride to push myself to clean and reassemble them faster. Or at least at an ever so slightly less cautious pace.

I set the cloth aside and began the simple task of reassembling the Ember Celica I had taken apart. In under a minute, I had it fully reassembled and the slider put back in the secure position. The only part I hadn’t really cleaned was the attached fingerless glove. I think I could clean that part while cleaning the dishes tonight.

Once I was done thinking about cleaning the fingerless glove parts, I started on the other gauntlet. This time, I found the slider and slid it first. It took a bit more force to disassemble since there was more dried crud on it, but it wasn’t too bad.

While I cleaned, sanitized, and polished the remaining gauntlet’s pieces, my mind wandered towards the matter of clothes. As much as I wanted to think of other things, I found my mind unable to veer away from the topic. One thing that was consistent in all my thoughts on the matter was the Ember Celica staying on me. I’m sure Rarity could make it work. Somehow.

I think I’ve become a little possessive of and attached to the Ember Celica. I’m not sure what to make of that.

Once I had the second one reassembled, I took a moment to look at my work. The gauntlets looked even better now than when I first got them. I slipped them on and put them in their compact bracelet form. The gloves did feel kind of bad, like there were bits of stuff in them. Looks like I would be the one to volunteer for dish cleaning tonight after all.

I took the gauntlets off and turned my attention to the box. I sat by it on the bed, took out the robe and its skirt, refolded them together, and set them aside. I then took out the letter and ticket, thinking about them.

“Canterlot, huh? Sounds interesting. Next week, though.” Maybe I could start arranging the trip with Twilight tomorrow? I’m sure she’d be happy to guide me around. She said so in her own postscript that she added to the letter.

I changed my focus to my new fountain. I did feel a little guilty in getting it from the Olive Branch Cafe, but Celestia said I could have anything, and I was probably too tired to think entirely straight at that moment. Still, what’s done is done, and I liked it. The ammo tree that came from the case was about the same size and shape as the fountain, so they could go side by side. Or maybe opposite corners of the desk?

I decided to take the rest of the day fairly easy. The down time I had until supper, I spent doing stretches and exercises that didn’t need any equipment or very much space. Luna suggested I exercise since I’ve not done much of it, and her rationale made sense.

Besides, she was a princess and my dream therapist, I believe. When your therapist suggests you do something to help yourself, you should do it, right?

Author's Notes:

This chapter's been sitting complete for a while. Apologies for the wait.