“Hey, I need your help.”

Twilight looked up from the newspaper she was reading. Seated on a bean bag chair she had dragged out onto the balcony, she had a perfect view of the bustling marketplace below as ponies went about with their morning chores. Water dripped from the leaves of the library, and the smell of petrichor hung sweetly in the air. Far above, the weather team was taking care of the last lingering remains of last night’s storm.

“Help with what, exactly?” she asked, folding up the newspaper to save her place in the article she was reading.

Wordlessly, I proffered up a cup of steaming coffee.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t drink coffee, and when I was in the kitchen earlier there wasn’t any left, which means you brewed a pot just for me, which means that… is a bribe.” Taking it in her magic, she glared at me. “What do you want?”

I held up a pair of scissors. “It’s getting a bit too warm for my liking, and I can’t reach.”

Blinking in surprise, she stared at me for a moment before she smiled and nodded her head. “Alright then. Come over here.” She motioned for me to sit in front of her even as her magic took the scissors from my hand.

Limping around her, I carefully sat down against her bean bag chair, being mindful of my sore leg. I folded my good leg under it, keeping the bad one straight. It took some adjusting to find a position where I’d be comfortable enough for a good while.

As I got situated, Twilight sipped her coffee. “You know, you didn’t need to bribe me to do this.”

“But I didn’t not have to either,” I said. The familiar chime of magic came from behind me, and I felt a tug on my ponytail as it was undone. My hair fell about my shoulders, tickling my neck and generally sitting heavily upon my head. Several small tendrils of rosy magic ran through my hair as Twilight worked out the knots.

“I haven’t done this in a while,” she warned.

“It’ll be fine. I’m not worried,” I said. Closing my eyes, I focused on the feeling of her magic rubbing at my scalp. The sensation sent shivers down my spine and goosebumps erupted across my arms and back. “Oh, that’s good.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Twilight huffed, but I could hear the trace of humor in her voice. She ran her magic through my hair a couple of more times before she lifted several strands of it into the air. “Do you have a preference for length?”

“I was thinking about two or three inches in length,” I hummed. “Give or take. Something just long enough to style if I want, but short enough that the bedhead isn’t horrendous.”

Twilight paused in her ministrations. “Wait, really? That short? Are you sure?”

“Positive.” I nodded, only to wince as my hair was pulled. “I want it nice and short before the summer heat gets here.”

“Alright,” Twilight said. She sounded a little hesitant but still got to work. Using her magic to straighten out my hair, she began snip-snip-snipping away. Strands of dirty blonde hair fell from about my shoulders, only to be caught in a rosy cloud of magic that was waiting for it below.

At first, I didn’t really feel any difference, but as more and more hair began to accumulate in the bubble, my head started to feel a little bit lighter. I could actually feel the breeze reaching parts of my scalp that it couldn’t previously.

Twilight hummed softly to herself as she worked, her song interrupted occasionally by a sip from her coffee. She was very careful with her task, wielding the scissors with almost inhuman precision. Now, that didn’t mean that the haircut would be perfect; just that all the cuts would be uniform and even. It might end up looking shagged, but it would be an even-looking shagged.

As the minutes passed, Twilight slowly worked her way around my head, gingerly using her magic to turn me to face the needed direction. Luckily for me, no matter what direction she pushed me in, I was able to see the marketplace which gave me something to watch while Twilight snip-snipped.

The weather team had finished up with cloud removal and were beginning to disperse. A rainbow streak disappearing into the distance caught my eye, and I smirked. Always on the move. As the last remnants of the prismatic trail began to disappear, I felt a tug on the top of my head.

“Down, please,” Twilight said.

Not fighting against the force, I flopped backward onto the bean bag chair, my head landing in Twilight’s lap. I stared up at her upside-down, smiling face. “There. That’s better,” she said before leaning down and kissing my forehead. “Now, hold still, please. I just have to do your bangs.”

She started to lean back again but stopped when I reached up and grabbed the back of her head. Pulling her down again, I planted my own kiss on the tip of her nose. A squeak escaped her and a soft blush touched her cheeks. For a moment she just stared at me, but then she cleared her throat.

“Please don’t distract the stylist,” she said in a huff. Placing a hoof on my head, she pushed it back into her lap. I blew a raspberry at her, and she responded in kind before her magic surrounded my bangs.

“Uh, c-careful of the eye, please,” I said nervously as the scissors came into view.

Twilight paused and her horn grew a little brighter. A visor of pink magic suddenly spread across my face, covering both my eyes.

“There you go,” she chirped before starting her work. Just like before, the cut strands were collected in the bubble with the rest of the excess.

“So, what are you going to do with all that?” I asked as I eyed the mass of cut hair.

The scissors paused as Twilight hummed. “You know, I’m not sure. On one hoof, it’d be easy to just throw it away, but on the other hoof, there are various uses for it.”

“Like what?”

“Well,” Twilight said as she began cutting again. “There’s wig making, but I don’t think you’d be up for that. Same with turning it into clothing.”

“That’d be a little too itchy… and creepy.”

“Well, there are ponies that use hair clippings to help grow food, weave the hair into mats that help protect the roots from weather and bugs.”

“A little less creepy… but still creepy nonetheless.”

“It could also be used for nesting material. Birds and mice would love some soft material to line their nests with. We could offer it to Fluttershy.”

I thought about it for a moment before sighing. “Eh, I don’t really care. Do whatever you want with it. Offer it to Fluttershy, and if she doesn’t want it, just throw it away I guess.”

“Alright,” Twilight said with a nod. “Next time I see her, I’ll ask if she could use it.” She gave a few more snips before placing her hooves on the side of my face and turning it left and right. “I think that’s all of it. Hold on one second, please.” Her horn flashed and what felt like dozens of tendrils slithered from my forehead, across my head, and down the back of my neck. “Yup! That should do it! Not so bad, if I do say so myself.”

Sitting up, I ran a hand through my shorter hair. “Oh my god. It’s so much lighter!” I mussed it up some more, enjoying the feel. Almost immediately, I realized something was missing. “It’s going to be so weird to not have to brush my hair out of my eye every few minutes.”

“This is going to take some getting used to,” Twilight admitted as she eyed me. “I’m going to be double-taking every time you walk by for at least a week.”

“Tell me about it,” I said. “I’m gonna end up scaring myself in the morning when I go to take a piss.” Playing with my hair some more, I pulled my hands away to find them covered in little bits of loose hair. “Ah shit. I hate when this happens.”

“Strange, I thought I got all of them,” Twilight said with a frown.

“That’s the way it is,” I huffed. “No matter how much you try and stop it, you’ll always have leftover excess. Should probably take a shower anyway. Get the stink off me and wash the loose hair out.” Rubbing my head, I watched as small hairs showered down only to be lost in the breeze. “God, this feels so weird.”

“Well, while you’re taking a shower, I’m going to go find a place to put this—” she gestured towards the bubble of hair “—until I get a chance to talk with Fluttershy.” Climbing off her bean bag, Twilight tucked the newspaper under her wing, grabbed her coffee, and headed back into the library.

“Oh, and don’t take too long in the shower,” she called back over her shoulder. “I need to take one too and don’t need you using up all the hot water again. It’s bad enough there’s six of us living here now.”

“Yeah, sure. Thanks again for the haircut!” I called after her. Still running my hands through my significantly shorter hair— “Oh my god, this is so fucking weird!” —I followed after her, descending the stairs and making my way to the bathroom. Upon looking in the mirror, the situation got even stranger.

“Oh my god. Look at you,” I muttered under my breath. My head looked enormous! I could actually see my ears and forehead again, what with my hair no longer hiding them. For once, my beard was actually longer than the hair on top of my head.

Actually…

Stroking my beard, I contemplated its length. “You’re getting a little long too, aren’t ya?” It was long enough to reach my collar bone if I tugged on it. The coloration was the same as the rest of my hair—dirty blonde streaks running through the chocolate brown base. Leaning closer to the mirror, I noted that several places around my mouth were patchy, the hairline broken by tiny scars. “Interesting…”

I studied myself in the mirror for a few more seconds before leaning back with a sigh. “You’re one ugly motherfucker, you know that?” Smirking at my reflection, I gave myself one last look over before turning on the shower.

I stripped down as the water heated up. A quick glance showed that the various scars I had accumulated over the past year were still there. The most noticeable one would have to still be the scar that ran across my face, over my nose, and to my right eye, which was milky white and useless. Then came all the scars I got during the human fight pit: one on my palm and a large one across my chest, both from bladed weapons. A quick check of my back in the mirror revealed that the claw marks from the manticores were still there too, although they appeared more faded than my other scars.

All-in-all, a rather morbid collection of memorabilia that made me question how I was still alive.

“You’re one ugly motherfucker,” I muttered to myself.

By now the bathroom was filling up with steam, the shower having gotten plenty hot. Adjusting the temperature so that I didn’t burn myself, I slipped beneath the water with a happy groan. I just stood there for a few minutes, allowing the water to wash through my freshly cut hair and down over my body.

Reluctantly, I pulled myself out from beneath the stream. Glancing around at the various options presented to me, I eventually decided upon a cinnamon-scented shampoo that was positioned in the back of the soap basket. Squeezing a large glob into my hand, I lathered it up before running my fingers through my hair and into my scalp.

As I washed, I found myself lost in thought. Despite my best efforts, my mind kept going back to the various events that earned me my scars. A year didn’t seem like a long time, but somehow I managed to get in a lot more trouble than one could assume was possible in that timeframe. Sticking my head back under the water to rinse the shampoo out, I hummed softly. Hopefully this coming year is a lot less eventfu—

fluuush

“GAH!” I yelped in pain as the sound of the toilet flushing was accompanied by a sudden burst of scalding hot water cascading down upon me. Scrabbling about blindly with shampoo in my eye, I pressed myself against the wall in an attempt to escape the searing water. “What the fuck!?”

“I told you not to use up all the hot water!”

“You bitch!”

Author's Note

Just a heads up; there may not be a chapter next week.