“Could I really benefit from just a makeover?”
He hesitated before the steps of the spa, feeling more of a sinking doubt then ever before, perhaps in his entire pony existence. “How silly will I look walking in here asking for a makeover? The excuse that I’m just a foal simply will not work anymore, I'm a fully grown stallion now. This can only end in embarrassment from the very moment I set hooves in there and maybe even beyond walking out.” Caramel thought to himself, afraid to look around and see if anypony else was watching him. He could have sworn he felt at least one pony staring at him, although that could just have been his cheeks burning up. Yet, even with all his qualm, he didn’t really see any other options. Plus, he was right here, looking at the belly of the beast. Might as well take a few more steps closer into its mouth with his pride intact then run away now looking like the biggest pansy ever to anypony who just so happened to be nearby.

He held his breath, slowly clip-clopping up the marble steps. The door was open now, and he forced himself through the lobby, over the nice circular swirling carpet made of purples and whites, and up to the counter. His hoof squeaked and hardly moved as if it were a metal door in an old abandoned submarine. Finally, his hoof hit the counter bell.

The ring summoned a pink and blue mare who zoomed to answer the bell, coming up behind the counter. “Welcome to the Ponyville Day Sp--” She stopped mid sentence, unable to speak from how far her jaw had just dropped. The counter prevented him from seeing how far it actually had gone downwards, but for all Caramel knew it could have quite literally completed the old saying of ‘my jaw hit the floor.’ 
"H-hii?" He managed to stamper out.
There was about a second of silence until the mare yelled out “LOTUS WE HAVE OUR FIRST STALLION!!” Caramel did not have much time to think about whether this reaction was good or bad before Lotus - who had the same colors as the other pony but in opposite spots - and her twin sister grabbed him by both his front legs and dragged him into the spa area. Immediately upon the double doors opening, a wave of hot steamy air hit him, bringing the smell of a greenhouse with how many plants and life there were, but also all sorts of beauty products, adding a certain sweetness to the air. Flowery shampoos, many candy based conditioners, coconut and shea lotions, and bubbles that smelled like glasses that were on for too long. There was even a line of animal based products that could make you smell like any animal you could ever think of, which of course Fluttershy had a helping hand in the creation of. If it weren't for the two mares harshly pulling him to the nearest hooficure chair, he might have had time to admire the shear collection. There was enough rigor in their pulling to make a gorilla jealous of these two. There was nothing he could do, especially on the slippery (on some parts) and humid floor of the spa room. 
“I didn’t even get a chance to see what you have available!” Caramel rightfully shouted at them, hoping they would stop. However, they didn’t give a second thought to it.
“Don’t worry, you won’t need to pay us after we are done with you.” Both of them started giggling about that to each other. After getting dragged to one of the chairs he was nearly thrown on to it. 
“What are you DOING AAAHHHH!!” Caramel screamed as he was flung into the chair, and he began flailing around a little until he realized it was a hopeless endeavour. Sighing, he asked what this was all about. The chattering between the two twins stopped. 
“We’ve never had a boy pony here, so there’s all sorts of techniques we have missed out on,” Lotus paused, and Aloe and her sister looked at each other. “Don’t take that the wrong way. We might be spa ponies but we aren’t those types of spa ponies.” The other sister chimed in: “There are just a ton of things we could do differently to you that might not be as... “ Lotus picked up where Aloe trailed off: “As beneficial to a mare.”
“What are you talking about?” Caramel asked, wondering what horrors may await him soon.
“Well…” They looked at each other again, and it seemed as if they had read each other's minds. Lotus continued, “Making a girl pony look femine is nice and all, but it doesn’t do anything exceptional for them really. However, making a boy pony look like a girl pony… now that’s something truly wonderful.” 
“And will yield amazing results!” Aloe chimed in again. Caramel was shocked that they seemed so accepting of what he wanted. Or had just gone crazy from the lack of gender diversity at their spa. That could be a possibility, seeing as how he was immediately dragged into this mess.
	“Are you two really being serious about never ever having any other stallions here before me?” The twins nodded. “Well then fine, I’ll let you… uh experiment on me or whatever you want to do with me.” Caramel said, trying to sound annoyed or at least uninterested. His outward feelings were not true in the slightest however. He really couldn’t have been happier with how this had all turned out, and he was jumping with joy. On the insides of course. 
	Overtime, the feeling of being tied down to a chair while mad scientists with dental tools surrounded him slowly started to turn into feeling like a lab rat in a maze with cheese at the end. He was still a test subject, but it was looking more and more like he would come out better in the end. Especially with all the nice things they were doing to him. They filed his hooves down, which was a very weird feeling for the first time having it happen. Even being so nice as to give him a nice scrub down with the shampoos, conditioners, and soaps of his choice in the warm waterfall baths. Caramel made sure his gratitude was heard while they softly patted him down with a towel.
	“Wow… this has been so nice! Thank you! I feel… more pretty.” They both laughed in response.
“We aren’t done quite yet. You might feel like a mare, but we plan to make you look like one too.” Lotus grabbed scissors from a shelf nearby. 
“Oohh okay, I like. I am just worried about what everpony else will think.”
“Oh don’t you worry about that. We will make sure they love it.” Aloe grabbed an eyelash curler. 
The two twins practically pounced on him, or at least that is how it felt with sharp scissors cutting insanely fast at his unruly mane, while also having weird half circle prongs jabbed at his eyes. He had always wanted to look like a girl since he was young, but if he had known the prerequisites, he may have changed his mind. But now it was much to late, as they jabbed and dabbed, splashed him with this and that, pushed and mushed his hair in every which way trying to get the perfect look for him. He was coughing up powdery makeup and had strands of his hair all over him when he noticed not as many hooves as usual, like the owner of a pair had stopped berating him with them.
“Do you not think we are going too far?” asked Lotus. Aloe chided her, “Non! Caramel shall be the most beautiful stallion in all of Equestria!” And just like that, the other hooves were working on him again. 
Just when he was about to faint from his personal space being violated for much too long, they finally simultaneously stopped. Caramel blinked as a mirror slowly came into his vision. 
“We think you look cute, but how do you like it?” 
Caramel had no words. He was amazed. Not only did he now look like a mare, but a hot one at that! His eyes almost seemed to sparkle as he looked at a whole new version of himself. For a few minutes, he admired his fantastical and quite monumental new fashion. 
	“Oh my… I’m speechless. I am truly beyond words… how did you two manage to do something of this caliber? I’m almost a completely new pony!”
Caramel stared at himself for who knows how much longer, feeling more euphoric than ever before. The twin looking ponies traded a few more sentiments, mostly just telling him how a little self-care can go a long way, and if he ever needed help he could come to them but they were sure he would be just fine with his new found courage. Hopefully with all he had been through today he had picked up some tips too. 
“Now go out and embrace the world with a new hoof. We hope it will do the same to you.”
“Thank you so much!” He squealed, prancing around. “I wish there was more I could do for you, are you sure you won’t accept my bits?”
	The two ponies pushed him towards the exit. 
“Don’t worry about it, it was our pleasure.” The pink and blue one said.
	“We have been wanting to test a few tricks out for a while, just consider yourself a test subject. Now shoo!” The other mare said, and with that he was kicked out the door, onto the marble steps, landing butt first. 
“Oh, and don’t forget to tell us how it goes!” They both sang out behind him, closing the door before he could reply.
“Well, I still have all these bits… maybe I can buy some of those products I saw at the spa for myself.” Thinking to himself, he realized the spa for some reason did not seem to sell any of the luscious items he had seen. Although it might not have something as nice as Fluttershy’s selection of animal smells, he knew it would do the job anyways.
	Getting up off of his rear, he looked around to see all the new ponies who had shown up to the market since he last saw. Already, he could see a few staring at him, giving him the same look that the spa ponies had shown him upon seeing a boy at their spa. Only now the looks were because he looked like a girl, and apparently a very pretty one at that with all of the increasing stares. Caramel shook himself to get rid of any dust that may have clouded up on him when he had hit the steps and began trotting towards the store he had in mind.
His sweet brown mane swept back from his dazzling eyes as the wind fluttered his bangs and his manicured hooves clopped merrily on the cobblestone. Mares swooned; stallions questioned themselves; but no doubt, every eye was on Caramel as he jaunted towards the store.
The door was wide open for him. Entering, all prior assumptions about the store were thrown out the wagon. It was not some discount dollar store shop like he had thought, no no no, in fact it looked to be where the likes of princesses went to shop, with quartz floor and pillars leading up to a high ceiling so that all the various products could be shelved accordingly. It was like a library of beauty products, every single one ever made documented perfectly, all of them for sale. Luckily there were multiple ladders and such to reach that high, and a list at the bottom for quick understanding of what was in that particular aisle. 
Speaking of princesses, his old thoughts were practically run over by the wagon they were just in when out of seemingly nowhere, Twilight arrived through the main entrance. 
	“Holy moly, I wonder what she will think of my new look.” Caramel quickly covered his mouth with a hoof, not meaning to speak out loud. Of course it did not matter, everypony around him was still gawking, showing no signs of having picked up on him talking out loud. He was quite happy at first with all these reactions, but now it was getting just a tad annoying. Hopefully Twilight did not treat him the same way. Suddenly curious on how she would react, he slowly approached her with the intent of starting a friendly conversation, that was of course if she did not already have 20 ponies trying to do the same thing. Before he could evaluate the situation however, she glanced at him, then did a double check stopping in her tracks causing all the ponies following behind to bump into her. 
	Still nervous about this whole thing, and taking the reaction from the purple pony as a bad sign, he felt his insides die a little and chose to remain silent for now. She cleared her throat, regained her composure and was the one to approach Caramel now. Suddenly her whole demeanor changed. It was Caramels turn to be worried now, seeing as how Twilight was almost strutting towards him, giving him a look. 
“Well, hello there, I don’t know if I’ve seen you before,” Twilight said flirtatiously. Caramel started. Didn’t Twilight recognize him? Jeez, he really was a whole new pony! The princess herself didn’t recognize him. And it was not like he was some random pony, they had worked together in various events a few times. 
Again for the second time today, he did not know what to say. Absolutely lost for words. Twilight did not seem to care about his lack of response however as she kept going. 
“What’s a pretty stallion like you doing here? Surely you don’t need to become even cuter than you already are~” Twilight was inches away from him now, their faces hoovering even closer. She was practically whispering to him now. Maybe she found his shyness cute, or maybe she thought he was that pretty. Either way he had to spill the beans. 
	“...uh we have met Twilight, I’m Caramel Sweets. Sorry….” Shyly, he looked away. He felt sad that all of this would likely end now, all of the glorious attention would poof away. 
Twilight burst out laughing. “I’ve read lots of books on matters like these and I don’t think that’s possible. The theory of likability states that no pony can ever increase their likeableness by more than 10 opals.” 
	“Well, the theory of likability didn’t account for what the Spa ponies can do. Look, my cutie mark is the same.” Caramel turned around to show Twi his cutie mark, “See? Sorry for ruining the allusion… I feel bad…” However when he turned back around he was surprised by two things. One was that she had gotten a bloody nose from that view (in retrospect, he only needed to turn a little for her to see, not show off his entire butt, but oh well.) The second thing he was surprised by was the kiss he received right after. It was a quick one, no hooves pulling his face in or the likes but there was passion to be felt in it nonetheless.
	“Caramel,” Twilight looked into his eyes, with a sincere and happy look. “I’ve always liked you, but I could tell that you seemed like you were forcing yourself to be something you didn’t want to be. Struggling with who you were inside and outside. I guess I should have said something to you, maybe had you read a few books or something on gender studies, but you did it yourself and now you are fully realized, and to put it at the least, you’re absolutely amazing!” The shocked look on Caramel put her into another mini rant.
	“Oh and sorry about the kiss… the books make it seem like it’s a good idea to randomly kiss other ponies. I mean it wasn’t that bad.. It could have been better if I had held it a little longer, not included so much umpf when I first went in … maybe the trajectory was off too?….” She trailed off. After a moment, heat still fresh on his cheeks, and deathly afraid to look anywhere else for fear of seeing all the ponies watching, he kept his eyes on the purple pony. “I didn’t think it was too bad, could use some practice though, I’ll have to teach you how, seeing as how popular and cool I am now.” He smiled at her, and the smile was returned. 
	“Uh, want to go shopping tomorrow? Maybe you can help me create some new equations for the theory of likability, seeing as how you have broken it? Or we could just sit around and kiss all day, I really don’t mind what we do.” She asked him. 
He took a moment to take it all in. He will admit, it had happened a little fast, but he had also kind of liked Twilight too. That’s half the reason he volunteered to help so many times, so maybe it wasn’t all that sudden. All of those subtle hints he thought he had gotten weren’t just miscalculations after all.
“Sure, we could just kiss all day. We should probably go to the Spa ponies first, they did say they wanted to see how it went after they set me loose.” They both laughed. “No I’m actually not joking I think they are some sort of wizards we should really check out what happened to me in there.”
Twilight looked alarmed for a few seconds, but then warmly smiled at him, looking into his eyes, which told him it would be alright.