Cleaning Darkness
Chapter 11: A Slow Day

By: Major Frostwing

"JON FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA SLOW DOWN!" Dash yelled out in fear as the wheels of my car squealed from taking a particularly sharp turn. "YOU ARE GOING TO GET US KILLED!" I only let out a bark of laughter as I looked in my rear view mirror seeing the flashing lights chasing us down.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Light Heart said as I laughed again. Taking another sharp turn seeing a bunch of cars on the road blocking my path. I yanked up the E-Brake whipping the tail of my car around before dropping it once again to gun it the other way.

"Jon as much fun as it is to watch you run away from the cops we should pull over." Nova said beside me as I cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Come on this is fun as fuck. I haven't felt this alive in a long time." I said as I continued down the road dodging cars as we went. "Plus there is only a few cop cars chasing me down." I pointed out as I saw a police barricade set up ahead of us. "So that's where they are... Huh pretty clever to plan out this spot to try and stop me. Sorry girls looks like fun times are over." I said as I slammed on the brakes stopping the car just before the barricade.

The cops moved out from the cover of the barricade taking aim at my car with their pistols. Soon enough the other cop cars pulled up behind me locking us in. I could hear Light Heart whimper in the back seat with Dash trying to comfort her. I rolled down my window leaning my head out.

"Happy Tuesday Gentlemen." I called out with a smile as all the guns trained on my head. "Was I speeding perchance?" I asked as they remained stoic.

"EXIT THE VEHICLE WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" One yelled through an intercom.

"It's ok Gentlemen." Nova called out poking her head out of the opposite window of mine. "I asked him to drive fast and didn't expect him to go that fast." She glared at me as I only held my hands up in defense. "Please excuse us we have somewhere to be right now." Nova said as the cops lowered their weapons.

"Does this mean I can leave now?" I asked looking to Nova as she only let out a sigh. I shrugged as the cops moved their cars out of my way. I slowly pulled forward looking at the cops with a wicked grin as I slowly rolled up my window.I gunned the engine once more burning the tires a bit before they finally caught traction and we rocketed down the road once more.

I sat in the waiting room of the spa reading over a newspaper as I waited for the girls to be done with all their massages and pedicures and what not. I let out a sigh as I looked up at the clock on the wall noticing that I had only been sitting in my seat for about 10 minutes. I got so used to moving about and constantly doing something that sitting still felt wrong to me. I let out another sigh looking back at my paper. This has been the 4th week that I had come here and just wait for them to be done.

"Excuse me." Some one said in front of me. I pushed the top of my paper down with my index fingers looking up at who was talking. "Sorry to bother you but are you waiting on an appointment?" The unicorn woman asked with concern at talking to me.

"I'm waiting on my friends to finish up their own appointments." I said as I folded the paper up setting it to the side. "To be honest I just can't relax I don't have anything to do besides sit here and read." I let out another sigh leaning back in my chair annoyed.

"I'm sorry to hear that sir." I looked at her for a second before shrugging.

"How much is a massage and spa treatment?" I asked getting to my feet stretching my back out.

"Sir?" She asked confused before shaking her head. "It's 25 bits for a massage and 50 bits for a standard spa treatment." I thought it over for a minute before shrugging reaching into my wallet pulling out some money.

"I'll take the deluxe minus the manicure pedicure." I said as the spa worker looked at the money before looking back up at me.

"Sir it's 400 bits for the deluxe." I cocked an eye before shrugging pulling out more money.

"Money is no trouble." I said as I held out the money out. She took the money showing me to the register and ringing up what I owed and the payment. She hit a button summoning a masseuse to take me in the back. "Miss Vera this is... I'm terribly sorry I forgot to ask your name." I chuckled shrugging my shoulders.

"Jon. Just Jon." I said as she nodded smiling to me.

"Miss Vera Jon has ordered the Deluxe please show him professionalism and kindness." The girl said as Vera bowed to her.

"Please follow me Mr. Jon." Vera said as she showed me the way to the changing room. "Please remove all of your clothing and put them into a locker. The robes will be in the basket along with a towel." She bowed once again stepping out of the room. I quickly got changed sliding the robe over my shoulders noticing the three scars on my chest. I set my fingers over the smallest hole near my heart.

I couldn't help but let out a sad sigh before tying up my robe and sliding my towel around my neck. I stepped out of the room to see Vera waiting on me. "Hope I didn't make you wait long." I said as she shook her head.

"Please follow me to the massage room and we shall begin." She said as I followed her to a bright very calming room. Light music was playing to help soothe the customers. "Please lay on the table face down me and my assistant will begin the massage." I did as asked and layed down on the table as I felt the towel being move off of my neck as my robe was removed. "Please relax as much as possible." I heard the tell tale sign of magic being used as I felt a small press on my back.

"Um sir... Your magic is interfering with our magic. Are you by chance using your magic to cover something up?" I heard the assistant ask as I let out a sigh.

"I have to disengage it don't I?" I asked knowing what the answer was.

"Normally we would say no but the spell seems to be rather strong. I'm sorry but we will not judge you for a few little marks." She said with a smile.

"Don't scream..." I said as I flexed my magic disengaging my cloak spell as I heard two shocked gasps. "Yea I know not the most pretty of "Little Marks"." I said As I glanced at the assistant out of the corner of my eye. She had her hands over her mouth with a look of fear and shock as she stared at the scars. "This was stupid I shouldn't have done this." I said as I went to reinstall my spell only to feel a hand on my shoulder.

"We are professionals sir nothing we haven't seen before. Miss Gentle. Please get control over yourself Mr. Jon has paid a lot of money to have the Deluxe treatment and we will do the job with utmost professionalism." Vera said as I glanced at Gentle to see her break out of her initial fear before nodding. I heard the sound of the magic starting back up before I felt a sharp pain in my muscles. I let out a wince of pain gripping my hands into fists.

"I'm sorry sir but in order to massage the muscles we need to add more magic to loosen them. The pain should pass soon enough." Gentle said as slowly the pain disappeared to be replaced by a gentle numbness. I let out a sigh as they continued to work through my muscles I felt like all my fatigue from years of fighting had melted away. It was a solid 30 minutes before I was finally finished with my massage.

"Follow us sir to the sauna and then over to the spa and finish up with a hair treatment. I shrugged as I followed them into the sauna. That took only a few minutes before I was thoroughly done with that dry air and into the showers I went. A quick shower and into the spa I went. As I stepped into the spa I saw Nova, Dash, and Tender all sitting in the hot water relaxing. They looked up to see who entered only to be shocked to see me.

"Sorry to say but the Spa is a mixed bath sorry for the inconvenience." Vera said as I shrugged wrapping my towel around my waist removing my robe and stepping into the pool. The girls were staring at me which only made me confused as I looked at myself to still see my scars visible. I looked back at them a cold smile on my face.

"They don't just go away after all." I said as I sunk deeper into the water trying to relax.

"Jon." I flicked my eyes over to Nova as she pointed at her left eye. "What happened to your eye? It's all black and Purple." I set my left hand over the eye chuckling.

"This old thing? Celestia cut my eye out with her stupid glaive." I said as I pointed at the small circular scar near my heart. "Magic beam from a particular bitch." I pointed at a clean cut on my right shoulder. "Guy cut my arm off. the list goes on and on." I said with a shrug. "I can tell you more if you want but I just want to enjoy the time here since it makes me feel young once again." I closed my eyes leaning my head against the edge of the pool.

"How do you keep them hidden?" I opened my eyes letting out a sigh.

"It's actually really easy Dash. Ever heard of a changeling?" I asked as she nodded. "Nasty little bugs at least back then. I caught one and basically dissected it magically and was able to discern how it's shape shifting magic worked and tweaked it to work for me. I just use it to keep the scars covered. I honestly forgot that I even had the damn thing up." I said with a shrug.

"So wait you mean to tell me you had this spell activated since I met you?" Nova asked as I looked to her with a small smile.

"Girl I have had that spell up since I was around 56 years old. and now I am..." I stopped as I thought over how old I was using my fingers to count for a second. "Hot damn I am 3824 years old." I said with a shocked expression. "And most of my life I have been either dead or locked in a rock... Fucking hell my life is depressing." I felt a hand on my shoulder only to see Nova smiling sadly at me. "Anyway." I said as I knocked Nova's hand off of my shoulder. "You guys are taking this rather well."

"Well scars are cool." Dash said as I let out a bought of laughter.

"Scars only have two meanings." I said holding up two fingers. "Trophies and mistakes. I try to learn from each mistake but sometimes it is unavoidable." I shrugged my shoulders. "Anyway we can talk more about my mistakes later let's just try and relax." The girls nodded their heads as they each leaned back enjoying the nice hot soak.

A little while later we all walked out of the Spa feeling clean and refreshed. I felt like a new man and my bones no longer felt like they creaked and cracked with every movement. "God damn I feel like I'm 24 once again." I said with a stretch as I magicked the doors to the car open. The girls looked to the car with unease but got in nonetheless. I got into my seat starting the engine leaning back in the seat. "Hey girls?" I asked as they all looked to me. "Let's keep the whole... Cloak thing between us. No one needs to know about how fucked up I really look." I said feeling a little self conscious about all of my scars.

"Of course Jon just between us." Nova said as Dash and Tender both nodded.

"Thanks girls... Now then shall we drive fast and reckless or fast and reckless?" I asked as I dropped the car into gear and gunned it for the castle to the screams of Dash and Tender.

Author's Note

A few things. Jon does get scars from all of his injuries but keeps them covered with a improvised Changeling cloaking spell. We also Have Jon's current age as of right now. I promise something a little more... spicy next chapter so enjoy.