Rarity ran headfirst towards Lagahai, who jumped into the air and off of her back. She turned around as he landed, almost ready to make a break for the door. She swung a hoof towards his head, only for it to lift off his body to dodge the attack. The sudden separation took her by surprise.

“I missed?!”

“It’s the collar’s power, babe!” Lagahai taunted, “This thing was used as a sort of weird meditative device by zebras long ago, but I use it for a grade-A evasive tactic! Many people want this, so I gotta protect it all for myself, y’know?”

“You fiend!” Rarity retorted, “So you’re a thief as well, I assume!”

“Some might say that,” Lagahai said, cackling.

“Rarity, toss me!” T.C. said from the bag.

“What?”

“Just do it!” T.C. yelled, causing her to take orders.

Rarity flung T.C.’s head like a football at the zebra. He bit on Lagahai’s hind leg, causing him to jump in pain. Lagahai decided to try and throw off T.C.’s head by dividing in half and kicking his legs around like an angry bull. T.C. tried to hold on, but eventually flew off and onto the massage table.

“Even if you’d held on, I would’ve still left with the collar! So it’d take me a few hours to get my legs back; big whoop. It’s the fact that I still have my hooves and head that matters to me.”

“You stay in here!” Rarity shouted, wrestling the half zebra to the ground, as Lagahai commanded his legs to go after T.C., kicking away the table with the tip jars.

Donnie dove for the jars and caught them before they reached the ground. “Mr. Lagahai, please don’t destroy the place!”

Lagahai struggled his words as Rarity pushed him closer to the ground. “Oh, boo hoo hoo, it’s not like I’m trying to help you anymore!”

“What did you say,” Primrose said in shock.

“I got my money…incapacitated your friend…what else is there you need from me? Unless you have more bits, I’m not even going to try and keep your place in one piece!” Lagahai roared back as he kicked the massage table over, toppling T.C.’s head to the floor in the process.

Primrose looked at what was going on, trying not to cry. She solemnly looked at Donnie and said to him, “Donnie, what have we done?”

Donnie who was still holding the tip jars from before looked at her. “I don’t even know anymore, honey. What I do know is we did something very wrong to our friend. He was but a mere drifter on the streets when we met him. I could tell from his eyes that he was fine being on his own even at such a young age, but you insisted we took him in and let him help with the parlor. He was so gifted with his massage skills, it was almost like he was born with that gift, when you and I studied the art of grooming together in school. But his generosity and his willingness to do his services for free…that’s not normal for a griffon. At least, that was never normal for a griffon when I grew up.”

“The kid has a wonderful heart, Donnie, and we took that away from him.” She began to step forward.

“What are you doing, honey? Do you really think apologizing is going to work?”

“At this point, I don’t care. I just want Thomas to be happy!”

With newfound motivation, Primrose rushed in to aid T.C.. She put the massage table back up and held back Lagahai’s legs from kicking over anything else, including T.C.’s head. Donnie saw what she was doing, and took to the air above where Rarity and the other half of the zebra were. Rarity went for a swipe to the neck, only for Lagahai’s head to ascend in time to dodge the attack.

“Don’t you all get it? It’s useless to attack me! Useless! USELESS! I’m just going to dodge even higher and higher, and return my head to my neck just in time to regain my focus!” Lagahai began to cackle, before coming to an ugly realization.

“What?! Why am I still in the air? What grabbed me?!”

Donnie, who was above Lagahai and Rarity, held his head in place. “Rarity, the collar!”

Rarity lifted the collar off of Lagahai’s neck, as Donnie dropped the head onto the floor. It did indeed collide with Lagahai’s neck, but much to his dismay, did not attach.

“No! What have you done? Give that back,” he retorted, but before he could swipe the collar away, Rarity teleported it to somewhere he’d never find it at. “Where did it go? Where did it go?!” Lagahai’s three pieces all shivered in terror.

“To someone she and I can trust,” T.C. spoke from behind him.

Lagahai shook his hoof at T.C. and the others. “This isn’t over yet! I’ll find some way to pull myself together! Don’t forget that!” Lagahai took his head under a front hoof, hopped his torso onto his lower body, and sprinted out the door. Many ponies looked in confusion at the three-pieced zebra that hauled tail out of Canterlot that day, and the story is still told around the grapevines of Equestria.

“Rarity…” T.C. whimpered nervously, “Just where did you send that collar to?” Rarity said nothing, only giving a wink to him.

And just like that, a familiar figure arrived. It was Gustave, with exciting news, and T.C.’s body in tow.

“Thomas! Mi amie! When I was on watch with your body, a collar just appeared in the room! I thought it looked very nice, so I put it on your neck! It matches your talons very well!”

Donnie picked up T.C.’s head. “But I think your body is missing something,” he said, before putting the head atop the collared neck. As desired, T.C.’s head reattached to his body, and he was once again whole. T.C. chirped in joy; it felt good to be back in one piece.

And after such a hectic day, T.C. and Rarity decided to go back to their hotels and relax. Donnie and Primrose continued to clean the parlor, and Gustave went off back to his apartment in Canterlot.

Author's Note

No, before you ask, Lagahai doesn’t have the hots for Rarity. “Babe” is just a part of his way of speaking to ladies, though you could imply he’s a womanizer of sorts. Or he just likes to mess with people, haha. But this is also where we see that Lagahai is like a jerkass genie of sorts. Sure, he was paid to incapacitate T.C., but he has no concern for what Donnie and Primrose really wanted. That’s why they decide to take action and retort.

I also decided midway that Donnie and Primrose could be married or engaged. I kind of see them being about ten or eleven years older than T.C.. In fact, if the Mane 6 are around the 19-21 range, T.C. would be 21, Gustave would be in between 24-26 (hey, he looks young to me!), Lagahai could be in his 20s, but Donnie and Primrose would probably be around 30-32 years of age.