"YOU ARE SO DEAD!!!"

"Uh oh," Toby murmured before feeling something blunt knock him in the back of the head. The momentum it carried sent him to the road, but he quickly got to his feet, turned around, and found himself glaring at another glaring face.

Clarity's glaring face.

"Clar-?" Toby began, but she punched in in the face before he could finish. Once again he hit the ground. This time his nose felt... off. Something very warm was coming from it.

Toby lifted his hand to see that it was shining crimson with his blood.

"Oh, heh... blood."

He then immediately passed out.

Toby groaned. He had an awful headache. What just happened? Was he unconscious? He tried to sit up, but someone - no, somepony - hurried over and gently pushed him down.

"No, you must relax," said a female tone in an accent Toby couldn't recognize. "Your head is probably very delicate at the moment, so you must remain still. Don't remove the cucumbers from your eyes. Don't worry, the facemask you have is supposed to help remedy that! It's an infusion of -"

"Not to be rude, but where the hell am I?" Toby grunted. "How did I get here?"

"Why - you are at the spa," the mare said. "Luna, Rarity, and Fluttershy all came in with you."

"I don't ever remember entering this place," Toby argued.

"That was because you were unconscious. Are you feeling any better?"

"WAIT, WHY DID YOU LET AN UNCONSCIOUS -"

"Toobyyyyyy!!" rang the voice of Luna. "Are you alright? I heard you shouting!"

"Yeah, I'm peachy," Toby replied as everything came flooding back to him. Clarity punched him in the face. He had probably been carried here by Luna, if not one of the other two.

"Oh my goodness!" said the voice of Fluttershy as she and Rarity appeared just behind Luna. "How are you feeling?"

"A bit of a headache, but other than that I'm fine," Toby answered sheepishly.

"Let me help you, then," Luna offered, lighting up her horn. Toby nodded in consent and felt the pain in his head disappear with a faint pop.

"Oh, that's better," Toby sighed in relief.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Rarity asked nervously, eyeing Toby's forehead with anxious eyes.

"Yeah...?" Toby grunted. "Why?" He placed a hand to his forehead and winced. It was heavily bruised.

"That pegasus guard hit you hard..." Fluttershy said softly. "Do you know her?"

Toby froze. The image of Clarity's face swam into view and caused a lump of guilt to swell up in his throat, but was soon replaced with anger. Something about her just royally pissed him off at the moment.

"...No. I have no clue who she is," Toby replied in what he hoped was a convincing tone. Luna stared at him in shock, and he remembered that she already knew about Clarity. Before Luna could say anything, Toby shot her a warning look. His marefriend instantly caught on and kept her mouth shut, but still looked slightly taken aback.

"You can press charges then," Rarity urged him. "No - you should press charges, especially since you don't know her!!"

"I'll pass," Toby deadpanned. "I've had enough time dealing with pony-politics... no offense," he quickly added with an apologetic look at Luna.

Luna looked down at the floor, and Toby knew instantly that she still felt guilt about their first encounters with one another. He reached over to her and stroked her head, which melted her anxious looks away in the blink of an eye. She closed her eyes and grinned, soaking up the affection.

Fluttershy blushed at this while Rarity giggled, bringing the two lovers back to reality. Both of them turned a bright tomato color and turned away.

"Er... so let's start with this - this spa stuff!" Toby stammered through his own embarrassment, and got to his feet. He then noticed that two nearly identical looking spa-ponies stepped forward, one of them being the one who Toby met after waking up.

The next hour turned out to be very bizarre yet oddly relaxing. Toby had never received a proper massage before, so it was a little painful to begin. However, as he felt his muscles loosen over time the experience became strangely enjoyable. He never thought he would of liked the touch of a hoof this much.

Author's note: that's what she said.

The best part of it all hands down was the jacuzzi-bath-whatchamacallit. It felt so nice to simply float there in the sparkling water. The heat of it seemed to waft all the stress out of every orifice, even if it was only temporary.

"Man, that was a treat. Thank you very much, Rarity!" Toby said contentedly as the four of them left the building. "I had no idea I could be so tense."

"I think you needed it," Luna said quietly, nuzzling his cheek.

"Oh? You think so?" Toby replied cheerfully. As he looked ahead of them he saw Clarity standing in the middle of the street, looking like she was waiting for someone. He knew who she was waiting for.

Inevitably, Clarity spotted the group. Rather than getting angry this time, she smiled and trotted over to the group. Toby felt the smile slide right off of his face. What the hell did she want, especially after punching him? He scowled.

"H-Hey, Toby..." Clarity said with a nervous smile as she approached.

Toby simply walked past her without giving a single acknowledgement of her presence. She stood in place for a moment, too shocked and perplexed to act.

She whirled around. "Toby! Helloooo? I know you heard me!" Clarity cried out, but Toby kept walking forward. Rarity and Fluttershy shot one another a mixed look of surprise, confusion, and suspicion. Luna, who was also stunned by Toby's behavior, came to her senses and cantered over to his side.

"Toby - that was rude!" she scolded, but Toby remained expressionless.

"Toby!!" cried Clarity, who had started to follow them. "Why are you ignoring me?"

"Toby, you are acting like a fool," Luna pleaded. "What has she done?"

Toby still gave no reply. He turned off the road and began making his way down the path that led to his homestead. Luna fell silent, watching her loved one with irritation and concern.

He reached his home after a very tense walk, much to Luna's dismay. The silence was suffocating. Clarity had not given up, and had followed the pair all the way to Toby's home. She looked at the comfortable home and gave a weak smile.

"Is - Is this your home, Toby?" she asked in a brave tone. Toby still gave no reply as he fiddled with the front door.

Luna frowned, gritting her teeth. "Toby - if you are going to just act like this, I'm going to come back when you've settled down." She turned around and began to leave. Toby opened his mouth, realizing his mistake, but it was too late. Luna had already retreated back down the hill, leaving himself and Clarity alone.

Clarity cleared her throat nervously. "Er - so you two seem rather close..."

Toby gritted his teeth. One more word out of her mouth...

"Toby... please stop ignoring me," Clarity huffed. "If you're mad at me for punching you I'm sorry, but you have to realize what you've put me through -"

"Took you until just now to apologize, eh?" Toby said, his voice quavering with anger.

Clarity recoiled, not knowing how to reply for a moment. She then said quietly, "I'm your friend, aren't I? Right...?"

Toby turned to face her with a scathing look as he opened his front door.

"Go to hell," he replied before slamming the door shut behind him.

Author's Note

So! Another long-awaited update to this dramatic tale!

I figure I should give an update for myself as well. Balancing work and school is extremely hard for me right now, on top of legitimately suffering mentally on the daily (I know, cliché). I am doing my best to give you guys quality content to read regardless, even if that means taking longer to write chapters. Suicidal thoughts are the norm now, among other things, so finding time and mental fortitude to write this has been rough.

Anyhoo! Sorry for the dark update, but as always thank you for the amazing support for this story! I love you all!