Shades of Purple (Unfinished)

        The spa was nearly empty. It had been a slow day to begin with, and now that the sun was starting to go down, the hours that usually boasted the most customers were long past. The two spa ponies, Aloe and Lotus Blossom, sat behind the counter, bored, biding their time until closing. The former sat filing the tips of her hooves absentmindedly, her hind legs kicked up on the counter. The latter scribbled love-struck poems of various stallions onto a scrap of paper, oblivious to the outside world. They both jumped to their senses as the door slammed open. Their blank stares turned into smiles as they saw who stood in the doorway. Lotus ushered her in with a wide grin.

 

“Oh! Rarity! Bienvenue à nouveau! Come in, come in.”

 

Aloe soon joined her sister. “What will it be today, Mlle Rareté?

 

Rarity brushed her mane out of her eyes and smiled. “Whatever my friend is having. I'm bringing a guest today, who may have whatever she requests. Charge it all on my tab.”

 

        Aloe looked at the door expectantly, waiting for the guest to come in. An arm appeared, and then a leg, and then slowly, Anonymous dragged herself into view. She didn't look at all comfortable. Aloe tried her best to look as welcoming as possible, with Lotus Blossom not far behind her. Rarity sighed and tapped her hoof on the floor. Anon carefully sidestepped into the room, scratching the back of her head. Aloe just kept smiling.

 

“Ah, miss Anonyme! Please, do not hesitate, come inside.”

 

Anon shrugged and entered completely. “Sorry, I'm... not too keen on the whole spa thing.”

 

Aloe waves a dismissive hoof. “Tellement ridicule! Nonsense. You will love it, I promise. Come along with me!”

 

        Anon cautiously followed Aloe through the door and into the spa's interior. Lotus waited until they were both out of sight before turning to Rarity with a confused look.

 

“Why bring her? Surely you could have found plenty of friends more enthusiastic. I'm sure even the rainbow one would be happier to be here than SHE is.”

 

Rarity sighed. “That woman is in need of a spa treatment. I've been asking her to come for weeks and weeks, and I only got her to accept now because I bought her dinner beforehand.” She shudders. “And Celestia is my witness, it's only a matter of time before I snap and style that mane of hers against her will. I don't care if my hooves get sucked into that tangled mess.”

 

        Lotus nodded understandably and ushered Rarity into the spa, trailing behind the other pair. The central room of the spa was the biggest in the building, and led to the entrance, the steam room, the product shop, and the storage rooms. It was filled with various workstations as well. Aloe swept a hoof over the various options open to Anonymous, who responded with blank stares.

 

“Bienvenue sur le spa! What would you like to try first?”

 

Anonymous stood silently for a few moments before responding. “Uh... I guess we could try the pedicure.”

 

Confused stares.

 

“Oh, forgot. Hooves. Uh, manicure.”

 

Continuous stares.

 

“... similar problem, yes. Maybe the sauna?”

 

Aloe finally smiled. “The sauna! Yes, follow me!”

 

        The spa ponies lead the group to the sauna. Heat rolled out as the door was opened, hitting the four of them like a wave. Aloe beckoned inside, and Anonymous followed, with Rarity close behind.

 

As they entered, Lotus Blossom gave Anon a weird look. “Eh, Mlle Anonymous? You may want to remove your clothes. You are going to get quite sweaty.”

 

Anon blinked. “Oh. You wouldn't happen to have a, uh, towel?”

 

Aloe sped out of the room and returned with a towel fit for ponies. Anonymous held it up to herself and found it barely covered the top portion of her body.

 

“...  two or three towels?”

 

        Aloe sighed and sped out again, returning with several more towels. Anonymous picked out the few that she needed to cover herself and stripped down, wrapping the towels around herself. It worked. Barely.  Anon thanked Aloe for the towels and entered the sauna, with Rarity following behind. Aloe and Lotus Blossom let them to it, leaving to prep some of the other parts of the sauna for use. Rarity eyed Anonymous with confusion.

 

“Why do you insist on wearing something at all times, darling? Not that I don't enjoy the business, of course.”

 

Anon sighed. “It's a human thing. We never take off our clothes.”

 

“Never? Ever ever?”

 

“Well, no, we take them off when we shower. And some people do it when they sleep.”

 

“Is that all?”

 

“There are other times. Like... you know, sex.”

 

Rarity blushed. “Oh, sorry, sorry, digging for too many details.”

 

“Don't worry, it's fine.”

 

        They both sat in awkward silence for a few minutes. Rarity kept opening her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again time after time. After about the fourth or fifth time, Anonymous finally snapped.

 

“Just say it, Rarity.”

 

“Oh, alright. You know how I am, darling, I need to know all the updates on all the relationships in Ponyville.”

 

“Of course.”

 

“So...”

 

“So?”

 

Rarity looked off to the side. “Soooooooo, are you and Twilight...?”

 

“... are we what?”

 

Rarity chewed her bottom lip. “Did you, per se... take your clothes off in front of her?”

 

Anonymous furrowed her brow. “What? No. No, no- what? Who even told you that? We're just friends, that's all. And that's all we'll ever be.”

 

Rarity tilted her head to the side. “Really? You two always spend so much time together, most of us just assumed...”

 

Anon paused. “Wait. 'Most of us'? Who else thinks this?”

 

Rarity paled. “Oh, no, it doesn't matter, if you two are just friends you're just friends, I'm sure yo-”

 

Anonymous turned to face her completely. “Rarity. Who else.”

 

Rarity sighed and gave up with a shrug. “Everyone, darling. We all thought it. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Lyra, Bonbon, Apple Fritter, Berry Punch, even Pinkie was in on it. And frankly we're all going to be a bit disappointed now.”

 

        The two of them sat in silence. For the next few minutes the only sounds came from uncomfortable shifting of weight from the mare and the woman. Eventually Aloe and Lotus Blossom returned to retrieve them, leading them back to the central room for their massages. Anonymous and Rarity exchanged slight small talk, but neither of them felt in the mood for conversation. After facials and a mud bath, their spa treatment was finished, and they both left the building just as the sun set. Sharing half-hearted goodbyes, they turned opposite ways and went home.

 

        Anonymous pushed open the door to her house. It was a cozy little place; one bed, one bath, a nice living room and a beautifully tiled kitchen. Anon raided her fridge and retrieved a bottle of cider. She jumped on to the couch and flipped on the TV. Hay's Anatomy. She shrugged and let it play. It was the perfect white noise to have in the background while she thought. Taking a swig of cider, she reflected on what Rarity had said.

        She and Twilight. Not only did the Rarity think it, so did everyp0ny else. Anon took another sip of cider. But of course, that was nonsense. Anon was very close to Twilight, and, yeah, sure, she herself was a lesbian, but... no. They were friends, and that was all there was to it. She took another sip of cider. Really, all there was. Friends. Very, very close friends. Anon tried to take another sip, but it turned into a chug. She finished off the bottle with a hiccup.

Yes. Definitely just friends.

And there's no way that would change.

        Anon threw the bottle on the small pile collecting at the end of the couch. The TV sat unattended as Anon got up and sleepily wobbled her way to bed for another night, still portraying doctor ponies diagnosing patients and occasionally banging each other. With a sigh, she collapsed onto her sheets, staring up at the ceiling with a blank gaze. As she drifted off to sleep, only two thoughts stayed fresh on her mind.

She and Twi were definitely just friends.

And Anon was definitely not feeling lonely.

 

        Twilight was already up at 5am, re-assigning the books to their proper shelves for the fourth time that week.  Any normal mare would have been upset that Sweetie Belle had knocked down every single book from their place four days in a row, but putting things back in their place was Twilight's specialty, and she loved it. She looked down at the title of her current book: Zebras: a Cultural Study. With sudden panic, Twilight looked over at her pile of unsorted books. As she feared, it was almost empty. She had made it all the way to the Z's. With a sigh, she put the final books in their place and stepped down from the ladder.

        Twilight started up the stairs to fetch Spike when she heard a knock at the door. She checked the time on the library clock. 5:07AM. Twilight scrunched her face and headed for the door. Who, besides herself, would be up at this hour? And why would they be visiting the library? She used her magic to swing open the door to find out.

        Anonymous stood in the light of the library's doorway, outside in the frozen morning before the sun had even risen. She was shivering, her eyes open, but glazed over. Twilight gasped.

 

“Anon, what are you doing? Do you know what time it is?”

 

She returned a blank stare, seemingly detached from the rest of the world. Twilight adopted a concerned expression and pulled her inside.

        Anonymous lay sleeping on the library sofa, snoring softly. Twilight sat by her side, reading a book, keeping half an eye trained on her obviously ill friend. She did not stir. Twilight bit the edge of her pencil nervously. She called for Spike.

 

“What do you think? Is she alright?”

 

Spike crossed his arms. “How should I know? I'm not even a doctor for ponies, much less humans.”

 

“But why would she walk over here? Unless... she does have a sleep walking issue. But that was pretty extreme for sleepwalking. The distance from her house to here is a long way to walk.” Twilight looked down at the sleeping human, taking note of her apparel. “Especially in an undershirt and barefoot at the freezing cold hours of the morning. She must be dreaming of something really hard.”

 

Twilight continued to watch Anonymous and her slow breaths, her mind wandering as to what she could be dreaming about.

 

        Anon floated aimlessly on a raft, a spyglass in her hand and an ocean surrounding her. She kept on constant lookout for land, trying desperately to find some form of place where she could finally set her vessel ashore. And yet all around, there was nothing. The sea stretched on infinitely, completely devoid of life. No boats, no fish, no seabirds. The only sound was of her own breathing, her own heartbeat, and the soft sigh of the wind skating over the ocean. Anonymous gave up hope, lying back against her mast and resting her eyes. She was done looking. Unless by some miracle, land happened to run into HER, she wasn't going to find anything.

        On cue, her raft shuddered. Peeking open with one eye, Anonymous took a sharp breath. Land. She stood up immediately, dashing off of her plank of wood. The island was beautiful; birds of the sea circled overhead, their obnoxious noises a welcome disturbance of the silence. Anon laughed gleefully, throwing herself onto the beach and hugging the sand.

 

“Anonymous?”

 

Anon blinked and looked up. Standing at the edge of the jungle stood Twilight Sparkle. She was smiling. Anon smiled back.

 

“Anon?”

 

She leaped up from the sand, running to the purple pony. Finally, she had found someone. She was no longer alone on the cold, empty sea.

 

“Anon? Anonymous!”

 

Yes, she thought. Yes Twilight. It's me.

 

“Anoooooooooooooon!”

 

        Anonymous shot up, startled. She looked around. She was in Twilight's library, apparently sleeping on her couch. Twilight stood next to her, concern etched across her face. She looked as confused as Anon was. Twilight put a hoof up to Anon's head, checking her temperature. She tried to smile to show that nothing was wrong. Twilight pulled her hoof back, finding no evidence that she was sick.

 

“Anon, what in the hay is going on here? You walk up to my door like a zombie and then I have to drag you over to the couch just so you can have a place to sleep. What's that about?”

 

Anonymous shrugged meekly. “I'm not entirely sure. I guess I was sleepwalking. Sorry.”

 

Twilight sighed. “Well, as long as you're alright. I was going to invite you over today anyways. I wanted to show you an experiment I'm working on!”

 

Anon smiled. “Let's do it. I've got nothing better to do today.”

 

        Twilight’s horn glowed with magic as she yanked Anonymous by the arm, dragging her across the room and to the basement stairs. She led her down into the lab, where Anon had witnessed dozens of her experiments and prototypes.With a blast of magic, Twilight threw open the door at the bottom of the stairs and dragged Anon in after her. Braking with all four of her hooves, Twilight slid across the basement floor, with Anonymous right behind her, trying her best not to trip over the mare. In the center of the room stood a towering construct, shrouded by a white sheet. Twilight gestured towards it.

 

“Are you ready for this, Anon?”

 

“You bet, Twilight.”

 

“Are you sure? The complexities of the science you will witness here today might BLOW YOUR MIND.”

Anon rolled her eyes and smirked. “Need I remind you I come from the world a hundred or so years ahead of this place’s technology?”

 

“Oh, pshaw,” Twilight scoffed, “your world doesn’t even have magic. Us ponies have mastered the powers of the abstract and combined them with the powers of the sciences! And besides, they didn’t have any geniuses like ME back in your world.” Twilight grinned.

 

Anon rolled her eyes. “Are we actually going to see this thing or are you just going to keep talking crap?”

 

        Twilight sauntered to the other side of the room, pausing by the massive obscurity and swiveling around to face her human companion.

 

“But it is not I that is speaking crap, but you who shall be eating it! Behold!”

 

Twilight ripped the sheet from the creation, finally revealing it to Anonymous. She stared on with confusion, trying to take it in. It seemed to be made of a few distinct parts; a central machine covered in knobs, buttons and levers that she couldn’t make sense of and two large glass domes on either side of it.

       

        Twilight stood off to the side, watching with a beaming smile and waiting for Anon to start asking questions. Eventually, the woman obliged.

 

“So... what’s it do?”

 

“I’m glad you asked! The way it works is simple. Subject #1 will step into here,” Twilight trotted to the machine and gestured into the rightmost glass dome, “while subject two enters in the opposite chamber. It’s very important that both chambers have a subject, because if they don’t, then the machine’s magic will probably just release itself into the atmosphere and explode. Assuming both subjects are present, a lab assistant or anyone else with the proper training will operate the central machine over there, and the transfer will commence!”

 

Anon raised a confused eyebrow. “Transfer?”

 

“It’s a teleportation machine! Zaps one thing from one place to another! Right now it only works inside the domes, but science has to start somewhere.”

 

Anonymous looked the machine over with newfound appreciation. “Does it work?”

 

Twilight shrugged a little. “Theoretically, yeah. It works with inanimate objects, but I have yet to try it with living things. That’s why you’re here today!”

 

Anonymous paled and took a few steps back. “Wait, wait, you aren’t going to put ME in there, are you?”

 

Twilight laughed. “No, of course not! We’re just going to use animals today.”

 

Anon sighed in relief, relaxing with a smile. She trusted Twilight and her scientific capabilities, but she had seen one too many of her creations malfunction during their debut. Twi was a genius, but sometimes she thought too far ahead and forgot about the immediate issues. Which usually lead to explosions. Anon thought that was pretty cute, and that’s probably why she liked her so muc-

 

She stopped herself.

 

Like as in... a friendly like. Not like-like. Or maybe it could be like that...

 

...no, no. She was tired. Her brain was just throwing words out there, it wasn’t like... they had a thing. No, they most definitely did not have a thing. Anon did not have a thing for Twilight and Twilight did not have a thing for her. Yeah. That’s how it had always been and how it would be.

 

        Her thoughts drifted back to her dreams from the previous night. For the first time since she had woken up, she actually meditated on them. That sea of loneliness... but then Twilight was there, to break apart the cold, empty waters and bring joy into her life. She leaned against the wall and started breathing heavily.

 

Oh dear lord she totally had a thing for Twilight.

 

Anon looked up at the purple pony, who was now entirely focused on calibrating her machine. She watched as the mare made her way around her machine almost randomly, checking various settings and whether or not certain buttons were pressed and unpressed. Anonymous bit her lip as Twilight involuntarily flicked her tail, revealing h-

 

        Anonymous mentally slapped herself. No. She was a HUMAN. Twilight was a PONY. One day, Twilight would figure out how to get her home, and then she would find a real woman and live happily for the rest of her life. Twilight was nice, and they were great friends, but there was no way in hell she was getting in a relationship with a mulberry mare. Reassured by her internal monologue, Anon made her way over to see how the experiment was going to work.

        There were several cages in the corner of the room that Anon had not seen on her way in. Upon closer inspection, she found these cages to be full of various creatures, ranging from insects to small mammals. She jumped back as a scorpion raised his tail at her.

 

“Are these the animals we’re going to use, Twi?”

 

Twilight peeked from around the back of the machine. “Yup. And it’s about time we got started. Carry over that scorpion and... I don’t know, grab the hummingbird, too.”

 

Anon grabbed both of the cages by their handles and lugged them back to where Twilight was tinkering with the machine. With the press of a button, the glass domes rose from the ground with a green glow, giving Twilight the space to scoot both cages into their respective chambers. With a press of the same button, the domes sunk back down to the floor, now filled with a specimen each.

 

Twilight levitated her friend a pair of shaded goggles. “Now, the magic that flows through here may be pretty bright, so wear these. Also, just in case anything explodes, it’s nice to have your eyes covered.”

 

Anon donned the glasses quickly and gave Twilight a thumbs up. The pony nodded in return and started messing with various parts of  the machine, darting left and right to attend to flashing lights, twist the odd knob, or press the occasional button. Her creation began to whir loudly, sparks of green electricity arcing across the surface of the machine. Anonymous expressed concern, but Twilight raised a hoof to calm her down. Anon assumed she was saying something along the lines of “That’s supposed to happen,” but she couldn’t completely make it out over the noise of the machine. Even still, she took a few steps away from the machine, pressing up against the glass dome with the scorpion inside of it as opposed to being abreast with the machine that was now spitting lightning around its proximity. Twilight was still near the center, checking that all the settings were correct and probably doing everything in her power to prevent it from destroying half of Ponyville.

Anonymous glanced behind her and noticed something that terrified her. In the chamber behind her, a green glow was growing larger and larger. The glass was quivering, the small cage with the scorpion completely hidden by the magical light. Anonymous tried to get the attention of Twilight, who was still absorbed in her work. Acting on instinct, Anon lept into the fray, wrapping one arm around the scientist pony and dashing for the nearest bit of cover. She found it behind a small lab table, which she vaulted over. Glassware went flying as Anon huddled behind the table, with Twilight safely beneath her, confused but trusting enough not to fight back. As she opened her mouth to explain, an ear-splitting explosion sounded throughout the lab, followed by silence.

The two of them stared at each other for a few moments in silence, Anon’s mouth still open as if she had something to say. Twilight slowly rose from her position, peeking over the side of the table with a slight whimper. Anonymous did the same.

The lab was a wreck. Shrapnel was strewn about the whole room; ruined books, broken lab equipment and even chunks of the walls. In the center of the room, where the machine had been, was simply a perfectly circular crater. Twilight trotted to where her behemoth had once stood and waved a hoof through the empty space, almost expecting it to meet resistance. As if on queue, the ceiling collapsed into the crater, revealing the flooring of the library above and a very dazed Spike. The small dragon sat blinking as the dust swirled around him, still trying to process the new structural layout of his home.

Twilight gazed up at the hole and tried for words, coming up with blanks. Anon came alongside her, recovering from the explosion slightly sooner than her poor purple friend. Eventually Twilight turned to her, shock still engraved on her face.

“I... might have to stay at your place for a while, if that’s alright.”

 

A bookcase fell through the new hole in the ceiling, nearly crushing Spike. Anon nodded slowly.

 

“I’m sure that can be arranged.”