Night Lord in Equestria part 12

>You awoke to a paw softly punching your face.
>Opening your eyes, you notice a white, long eared rodent sitting in front of your nose, paws crossed, one leg thumping in annoyed rapidity. It must be expecting something.
>You flick the pest on the nose, which thanks to your gene enhanced strength, sends the fluffy mammal smacking into the far wall.
>After picking itself up, it hops away, an angry look plastered across its face.
>All rodent problems dealt with, it was time to start the day.
>Donning your armor takes longer than you expected, seeing as you don’t have any help.
 >Fluttershy descends the stairs just as you strap on your jump pack. Blinky follows close behind, chirping as he sees you.
>Fluttershy seems to have recovered from her malady. Good.
>After eating a light breakfast of fruits and cereal, Fluttershy explains the day’s planned excursion.
>”Well, since the girls and I know you’ve been having a rough time since you got here, we, um… wanted to do some things for you…” She explained, her timidity brazen once more.
>”And what exactly did you have in mind?”
>”Well, Rarity thought it would be a good idea to make you some clothes and take you to the spa. We all thought you might like to, you know… relax a bit.”
>While you have no idea what a spa is, a new robe would be nice.
>”Alright, let’s go see Rarity then,” you state, rising from your seat on the floor.
>Fluttershy leads you out the door while Blinky remains behind, tidying up the breakfast mess.
>After securing your helmet, both you and Fluttershy take to the sky, soaring towards a certain someone’s carousel-shaped house.
>After landing, you politely knock on the door. You still manage to dent the soft wood, however.
>”Sweetiebelle, would you get the door, please?” Rarity’s strained elegance muffled somewhat by the closed door.
>”Okie-dokey!” A far more youthful and high pitched voice responded.
>Soon enough, the door pulls open, revealing a small mirror of Rarity, only with a curly pink and purple mane.
>”Hi! Welcome to Cara-“ Sweetiebelle’s greeting stops the moment she lays eyes on you.
>”AAAAAAAAAAAAA!” She screams, slamming the door in your face.
>An entirely justifiable reaction, given your skull-bedecked armor and predatory visage.
>”What’s the matter, Sweetiebelle?” Rarity responds, concerned.
>”There’s a monster outside! We gotta hide!”
>”Oh, nonsense.” A pause. You see Rarity look out a nearby window, an annoyed look on her face. “It’s just Chosen, now let him in, you’re being rude!”
>Far more slowly, the door creaks open. A pair of frightened eyes peers from around the door.
>Ducking under the doorframe, you tenderly make your way inside, trying not to punch holes in the flooring with your foot-claws.
>Horse mannequins clothed in saddles and dresses cover the floorspace, while bolts of cloth sit in slots on the walls, waiting to be stitched into clothes.
>Why do ponies need clothes? You hadn’t seen a single pony that wasn’t stark naked your entire time here. Yet another oddity of this place.
>Fluttershy follows you in, reassuring Sweetiebelle that the towering monster in her midst means no harm.
>”Ah, Chosen! Delighted to see you again! I’ve come up with some designs for some clothes for you, but I need measurements!”
>A tape measure flies over to you and wraps around your arm, not quite able to make it all the way around.
>”Oh, what am I doing? You need to take off your armor, Chosen! Sometimes I get so wrapped up in a challenge I forget to think!” She says, cultured tones never falling.
>”You don’t have scanners to take my measurements?”
>”That’s only in science fiction movies, Chosen. Now please, take your armor off.”
>So she says.
>”Fluttershy, will you help me again?”
>Once more, her face reddens deeply and her heart beats faster.
>Looks like her illness has resurfaced. You’ll have to ask Twilight if Fluttershy has some kind of heart condition.
>She gets to work soon enough, though.
>Sweetiebelle trots up to you after you pull your helmet off, having been calmed slightly by Fluttershy’s reassurances that were not, in fact, going to eat her.
>”Mr. Chosen?” She timidly asks you.
>”Yes?”
>”Do you have a cutie mark?”
>You chuckle slightly at this.
>”Kind of.”
>After pulling off your left shoulderpad, you point to the batwinged skull emblazoned on it.
>”That’s my mark.”
>”What’re you the best at?”
>”Scaring people.”
>”Maybe that’s what my cutie mark’ll be! Can you teach me how to scare people?”
>She looks positively excited at this prospect.
>”I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
>”Aww… I’ll never get my cutie mark…” she replies, eyes downcast.
>Your heart stirs slightly at this.
>”You’ll find out what you’re best at. Give it some time. I didn’t know what I was best at until I was fifteen.”
>”Really? That must have sucked!”
>And the feeling’s gone.
>Rarity shushes her younger sibling harshly, sending her to fetch something pertaining to sewing, you guess.
>Rolling your eyes, you go back to pulling your armor off.
>All the while, Rarity watches you, first in curiosity, then after you finish, another look creeps across her face.
>You can’t really place it. It seems to be a melding of nervousness, excitement and the same redness Fluttershy is exuding.
>”You all have really got to start seeing a physician more often. Fluttershy’s disease seems to have spread to you, Rarity.”
>”Wh-what? I’m not a sick pony! It’s just… I didn’t realize… Oh Celestia…”
>”Are you able to function? I can come back tomorrow, if you would prefer to get some rest.”
>”No! No. I’ll be fine…” She replies, her voice a straining a little. The tape measure once more flies around your arm, while Rarity dithers about you, marking down measurements on a clipboard.
>”Now what exactly are you planning on making for me?”
>”It’s going to be something spectacular! Everyp0ny will be in awe of your impeccable fashion sense!” She replies, getting into her work.
>”I don’t need to look like a noise marine,” you state as a violently pink bolt of cloth sails past your head, “I just need a simple robe. Something I can wear when I’m out of my armor.”
>”But-“
>”Please, Rarity. Something simple. No frills, no lace, no pink. Just a midnight blue robe with my legion’s symbol on it.”
>With a delicate, dramatic “hmph”, the controlled chaos gains some sanity. She puts away most of the accoutrements back on the wall, and goes about her work.
>”Well if you just want to be a plain looking Astartes, that’s alright with me,” She whines from behind her sewing machine.
>Such drama.
>”Alright Fluttershy, now I need you to help me put all my armor back on.”
>Fluttershy at first offers no response and just stares at you, face still a vibrant red.
>”I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Rarity calls from her work station. “We’re going to the spa to meet up with the girls after this. Something tells me you don’t want to have to spend another ten minutes taking it off once we get there.”
>You can’t really argue with that logic.
>Hearing the door open behind you, you turn to face a new voice.
>”Hey Rarity! What’s goin- Woah! Who’re you?”
>A runty looking lizard has tottered in the shop, holding a diamond encrusted cupcake in one hand.
>”Chosen of the Night Lords. And who are you?”
>”I’m Spike! I’m Twilight’s assistant. Aren’t you the guy that killed that monster that burned down the town?” He asks excitedly.
>”The same. Twilight told you, didn’t she?”
>”Oh yeah! She said something about how you punched the crap out of him to buy the girls time to use the elements! Were you a knight back where you come from?” He responds excitedly, one fist punching into his open hand to add to the point. He manages to smash his pastry into paste, however.
>”Oops…” he says, shaking frosting and shards of diamond off him.
>”I suppose you could call me a knight, Spike. I’ve been on crusades, rescued worlds from corrupt kings and killed my fair share of monsters.” You were sugarcoating your history so hard even Pinkie Pie would get diabeetus, but you seemed to have done that with virtually everyone.  What they don’t know won’t hurt them.
>”Cool! I’ve always wanted to be a knight! Can I be your squire?”
>You laugh at this. After a few moments, you respond. “It’s been centuries since I’ve trained a neophyte, Spike, and you’re not Astartes. I don’t know if you’d be able to handle the training. It’s very tough.
>”Puh-leeze! I’ll do anything! I’ll be a great squire! I’ll polish your armor and clean your swords! I’ll-“
>”Spike, that’s what an artificer does. You’d be training from sunup to sundown, and possibly longer.”
>”You mean I get to stay up past my bedtime? Sweet!”
>Nothing seemed to deter this lizard.
>”The training will last several years at the very least, and you won’t see your family or friends for quite some time.”
>This seems to finally slow him down. “Yeah, but… it’ll be worth it. Won’t it?”
>For a short while the only sound in the room is Rarity’s whirring sewing machine.
>You really had nothing to do in Equestria, so this would be a fine distraction.
>But you’d be training him the only way you knew. Like a Night Lord would be trained. No. No one was going to go make the mistakes you did.
>”What would your parents think of this? I don’t think they would like the thought of their son in so much danger.”
>”Twilight’s not my mom. I don’t have any parents.” He replies somewhat sadly.
This is getting heavy fast.
>”Spike, why do you even want to be a knight?”
>”’Cause I want to protect people I love…” Spike responds timidly.
>Rarity’s machine has silenced.
>”Oh?”
>”A couple months back some Diamond Dogs kidnapped Rarity while me and her were hunting gems. I tried to fight them off, but they just laughed at me. I couldn’t do anything.”
>It was a heartfelt revelation, that much was certain. No trace of a lie glanced through Spike’s eyes.
>It reminded you an awful lot of yourself, explaining to your dad why you wanted to go follow the Night Haunter and become a space marine. Your sister had been taken by a mugger, who stabbed you when you had tried to intervene.  You had survived, but she had not. They had found her body a few days later, down in the sump lakes beneath the city. The memory bubbled up from some forgotten recess of your mind, unwelcome and uncalled for.
>Empathy uncurled in your mind, an uncomfortable ache.
>Who said you had to train him EXACTLY like you were trained? He could be like what you felt you were once meant to be. A Justicar, a protector of the weak and punisher of the evil. But the boy would have to be toughened. He’d lose his childhood, and his innocence.
>He didn’t seem to care. What he could gain was more than worth what he could lose, he must be thinking.
>Sighing heavily, you lay an ultimatum on the table for the child in front of you.
>”Alright Spike, listen to me very carefully. If you choose to do this, you cannot back out. No second thoughts. No giving up. You’ll break bones, and some days you’ll pray that you die. You won’t really have a childhood. It will be long, and it will be hard. That’s what the training will be like.”
>Silence blankets the lull in the conversation. You fill the void.
>”This is a big decision, and you need to think about this. Sleep on it. By tomorrow, if you still want to, I’ll start your training.”
>He nods, knowing Twilight and the girls will do their best to talk him out of it.
>”Alright, Chosen! You’re robe’s finished!” Rarity calls to you.
>”Already? You work fast, Rarity.”
>”Well I AM the best fashion designer in all ponyville!”
>Such humility.
>You slip on the blue-black robe, tightening a smart belt around your waist. It’s eerily similar to your original robe, which surprises you.
>”Color me impressed, Rarity. Fine job.”
>”You flatter me Chosen.”
>A short pause.
>”Oh, heavens, just look at the time! We’ll miss our appointments at the spa if we don’t hurry over there!” Rarity calls, hurredly pushing, you, Fluttershy and Spike out the door. She follows close behind.

>A few minutes later, all three of you (Spike had chores back at Twilight’s Library) stand in an expansive tile room smelling of aromatic herbs and femininity. An Emperor’s Children marine would be at home here.
>”Welcome to our spa, Mr. Chosen! We’ve been preparing for your visit,” One of a pair of pink and blue ponies calls to you.
>Pinkie Pie, Twilight and Applejack lounge in a pool, waving to you as you enter. Rainbow Dash is absent. When you ask why, you learn that spas are to “girly” for her.
>Yet here you stand, a space marine. Irony abounds.
>After the spa ponies explain what exactly a massage is, you would say you were looking forward to one.
>Lying down on their table, you wait for them to get to work. You can already feel stress bleed from you.
>”Er, Mr. Chosen?”
>”Yes?”
>”You need to disrobe.”
>”And why exactly, is that?” you respond. Being out of your armor was one thing. Being completely naked was another thing entirely.
>”Our massages require us to actually touch your skin. Don’t worry, we won’t do anything you won’t want us to,” She smiles down at you.
>Only slightly reassured, you grab a large towel and head to a locker room marked “stallions”.
>After stowing your bodyglove and new robe, you discover, to your horror, that the towel hardly covers you at all. It barely blocks your manhood from view, let alone your backside.
>Peeking your head around the door of the locker room, you call out to the mares in charge.
>”Excuse me? Spa ponies? Do you happen to have any bigger towels?”
>”The one you grabbed was our biggest size. Come on out! Don’t be shy. It’s not like we haven’t seen anything you’ve got anyway, right girls?”
>The other ponies laugh. Rarity’s high giggle, Applejack’s guffaw, Fluttershy’s breathy laugh and Pinkie’s machine-gun chortle mix with the spa ponies’ own mirth. Twilight is the only one silent. Why?
>It doesn’t matter. Throne in flames, they didn’t care if you were stark naked, why do you care so much?
>You stride towards the massage table, and you notice the stillness that settles over the room.
>”What?”
>No response from the mares, other than the fact that all seven of them, save for Pinkie Pie, are practically glowing red.
>”You all really need to see a doctor.” You reply, lying facedown on the extra-long table.
>”Damn straight I do, Dr. Feelgood!” Pinkie giggles.
>The rest of the ponies laugh.
>Must be a joke of theirs or something.
>Still laughing, the blue masseuse starts kneading your back.
>Almost instantly, your muscles start to relax.
>Until she begins poking a spinal junction socket.
>”Don’t touch those. That hurts when you touch them.”
>Complying, she continues. Contented with the surprising comfort this brings, you don’t notice Rarity talking somewhat frantically with Twilight.
>Soon, she and Rarity have left, soon followed by a concerned Applejack and Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie follows a bit later, thinking she’s been left out of something by her friends.
>You don’t realize you’re alone until the blue pony bends down and whispers in your ear, “Happy ending, big boy?”
>Only then do you realize the girls have left you.
>”Maybe next time. Where did the other ponies go?” You ask, sitting up.
>”Oh, they said they had to take care of something at Twilight’s place. But don’t you want to stay here a little longer?” She asks, biting her lower lip.
>”No thank you. The massage was amazing though. I feel a hundred percent better.”
>”I aim to please,” She whispers in your ear. It’s getting a little unsettling now.
>After donning your clothes again, you set off towards Twilight’s treehouse.
>It would be impolite not to thank them for the wonderful time and the clothes.
>You begin to hear raised voices as you approach, however…