Regent

Secrets

Twilight wearily walked into her room, casting a dim light spell to see where she was walking in the pitch black. She could hear Spike snoring softly on the other side of the room.

'Who schedules a four hour meeting with the Board of Canvassers at nine o'clock at night?!'

After haphazardly throwing her regalia onto the dresser, she made her way into the bathroom, activated the crystal light, and locked the door.

“Ugh!”

She stretched herself out.

“After that bureaucratic nightmare, I think I'll indulge a little.”

Walking over to the tub, she drew a hot bath. She wrung her hooves together as steam quickly filled the room.

“Alright. I have half an hour. Twelve point five ounces of bubble bath soap. An advanced copy of the newest edition of Arcane Magic Quarterly that Morning Star gave me. And—” she giggled, “a rubber ducky.”

At the mention of the duck, she levitated it up and squeaked it a few times. She then dumped most of the bubble bath into the water and agitated the water to froth it up into a small mountain of bubbles. Twilight then slowly dropped herself into the water, sighing contently as she did. She flexed out her rarely used wings under the water and allowed them to float freely just under the surface. Her eyes focused on the duck, which floated innocently in a small bubble alcove.

“Now, Mr. Anatinae, watch out for the Hooficus Monster.”

At the mention of the dreaded beast, a purple leg slowly crept out from its bubble hiding spot. It watched the innocent duck and the moment the duck turned away from the bubbles, pounced in a flash of lavender and soap. The duck managed to evade the hoof by diving underwater.

“Curses. Foiled again. You will be mine, Anatinae.”

For the next several minutes, Twilight toyed with her captive rubber duck. Wearing it out until, finally, it surrender to the sadistic whims of the purple monster that had tortured it so. With its last breath, it squeaked out in defiance of the purple monster—content in knowing that, even though it's body may have broken, it's spirit never faltered—before she slowly filled its body with water, sending it to a watery grave.

With her foe dealt with, Twilight settled into the bathtub and began to read Arcane Magic Quarterly's cover story, titled “Lost Artifacts of the Crystal Empire, Lost No More.” Ten minutes and three articles later, Twilight put the magazine down and picked up a loffa and bar of soap.

“Time to wrap this up before I shrivel into a raisin.”

Another fifteen minutes passed before Twilight stepped out of the bathtub, squeaky clean. She grabbed a towel and dried off her mane and tail, before padding herself down. Still damp, she reached into the cupboard under the sink and pulled out a book titled A Foal's Guide to Preening.

“Let's see if I can get it right this time.”

After glancing at the diagrams in the book, she opened a wing and started adjusting the feathers with her mouth.

'Carefully smooth them out and twist it so th--'

“Ouch!”

Twilight yanked her head away, a purple feather in her mouth. She sighed.

'Almost had it that time.'

The alicorn grabbed a bucket filled with purple feathers labeled “Quills” and spat the feather into it before returning to her preening.

'Now, carefully...'

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Twilight gurgled and spit out the mouthwash before she grinned in the mirror.