My Little Ponies Forever: Bath Time

What happens when you forget to bathe your own ponies for weeks?
You get two smelly little ponies that really need a long, warm bath. This is my first side-story to the original My Little Ponies Forever....

"Come here you two. It's time to play in the water."

Two young, cheerful ponies suddenly dashed right up to me from on top of my bed and looked up with bright smiles on their faces. They were waiting to have some fun with me all day, and now they didn't want to waste any minute. I laughed as they trotted by my side into the bathroom.

If you guessed it, you're right: I was going to give them a bath; their first ever, in fact.

It was on a warm Wednesday evening in June. My parents have already left the house to spend some quality time by themselves. While they were gone, my older brother was left in charge of me and my younger brother. They do this every Wednesday evening, so I figured it was the best time to let the ponies run around outside my room.

My older brother doesn't mind it, since he already knew about them for two and a half weeks now. My problem, however, was keeping them out my little brother's sight. He doesn't know about hem yet, and if he did, he'd probably start chasing them around and make them feel uncomfortable. He's getting closer to finding out about them every time he almost catches them with me.

Back to the bath, I noticed how smelly the ponies were getting over the last few weeks. My mother thought I wasn't showering regularly like I was supposed to. I already made a couple of excuses to my mother that I would make sure I took a bath tonight just so I give one to them. Tonight seemed like a good night to do it. They did seem nervous about it at first, but then I told them how much fun it can be, which got them really excited.

I led the two young ponies into the bathroom, closed the door, and locked it so no one else could come in. I already had the water running in the tub, but I had to make sure it didn't fill over the height of Red and April's necks. They both watched the water run down into the tub from the faucet. I had to laugh at their reaction to the falling water. When it reached the sixteen-inch mark, I quickly turned off the water.

"Okay you two," I said as I turned to look at the young, excited ponies, "I'm going to put you in the tub one at a time. April, you're first."
I gently scooped her up in my hands and lifted her over the edge of the tub. As I lowered her into the water, she could feel the steam rising from it. When her hooves touched the surface, she started squirming in my hands and retracted her hooves from the water. I raised her out of the water and held her close to my chest. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“O-ow! Ow!” she cried. Red was starting to look worried. I reached out and dipped my left arm into the water – only to retract it on how warm it was. Now I knew what the problem was: the water was too hot for her. I must have turned the hot water on too much by mistake.

I quickly dipped my hand back into the water to reach for the plug and pulled it out. I then turned on the cold water to cool down the water in the tub. I looked back down at the little green filly, who started to cry into my shirt, and said softly, “April, I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was going to be that hot. I’m sorry.” She calmed down as I stroked her mane.

I put the plug back into the tub after letting it drain a little. The water felt cooler now, so I decided to put April in the tub again. "Okay April," I began explaining, "I made the water cooler now. It won't hurt you this time. I'm going to try to put you into the water again. Do you trust me?" She looked up at me and responded with a semi-nod. I slowly lifted her over the edge and into the water. She shook a little at first, but when she felt how cool the water was compared to the first attempt, she calmed down and allowed me to place her into the water. The water went up to the bottom her neck, which was a good thing. I didn't want the water to get up to her face.

As April began exploring the tub, I picked up the little red colt and set him into the water next to her. Then, just as they did in the creek weeks back, they began to splash each other all over. They even splashed me a few times. I couldn't stop laughing, and they couldn't stop giggling. "Hey," I exclaimed, trying not to laugh as I spoke, "stop it, you two. You're getting the water all over." They stopped splashing and looked at me, frowning. I honestly didn’t know why I just said that. They were kids after all. All kids like splashing in the water when they take baths. “I’m sorry,” I said to try and cheer them up, “I’m not mad at you two.”

Then, I thought of something that can get kids really excited when taking baths, both humans and cartoon ponies alike: bubbles. I turned around and reached for the shampoo from the bathroom cabinet. It was kids’ shampoo that had the sweet scent of watermelon in it. I squeezed the bottle and let the shampoo fall onto my left hand. After that, I rubbed it all over April's mane. She seemed very curious at first, but then she started giggling at all the bubbles forming around her head. Red had to giggle too for seeing how silly April looked with her now soap-covered mane. I found the sight of the both of them right now too funny and adorable. I couldn't help but start laughing myself.

Upon witnessing the current sight of them, I suddenly realized something: I haven't taken any pictures of the playful ponies for weeks. I knew this would be a perfect opportunity to take a picture of them. "You two stay here," I explained, "I'm gonna go get something quick. Sound good?" They were too busy playing with the bubbles, so I just took that as a 'yes'. I stood up, unlocked the door, and quickly rushed out the bathroom and into my room to get my cell phone from the top of my dresser. When I returned to the bathroom, I saw the ponies still playing around in the tub. I chuckled and held my cell phone up to take a picture of them playing with the bubbles. Their cheerful expressions turned back into those of curiosity.

"Smile you two," I said with a big smile, hoping they would do the same, and they did. They smiled at me and continued to play with the bubbles. I took a picture or two of this wonderful sight. I wanted to take more pictures, but I decided to take some more later so my phone didn't get wet. I squeezed some more shampoo into my hand and rubbed it onto Red's mane. As I did, he tried to look up at me with his round, yellow eyes and began to stutter, "W-w-what y-you do?"

"I took a couple pictures of you two having fun," I answered.

"W-w-w-why?" he asked. I honestly figured he didn't know much about taking pictures or why I would take some for special moments like this.

"It's so we can always remember all of the fun we had," I answered with a smile, "Now, hold still."

I continued to rub the shampoo on Red's mane and wash the two ponies all over, except for their underbellies (which they wanted to do themselves). Then, I grabbed a plastic cup from the sink, scooped up some water, and dumped it over their heads. I chuckled when the suds accidentally went into their mouths and they tried to spit them out.

After the suds were completely rinsed off from their heads, I picked them up, one by one, and set them down on a towel laying on the floor right next to me. I grabbed another towel from the cabinet and started drying off the little green filly. She smiled and giggled as I rubbed the towel all over her body. I was about to do the same to Red, but he decided on a better method: he shook the water off, like a dog, and splashed it all over me and April. "Hey, Red," I said as I held my hands out to block the flying water, "don't do that." I couldn't stop laughing as I said so. He stopped after shaking off so much water. "Now listen, you can't be shaking off water in the house. You gotta use a towel."

Honestly, I had no idea why I said that. I didn't really believe that all human standards applied to the ponies on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Still, I didn't want him to get me, or April for that matter, any more wet whenever I give them their baths.

He looked at me with a frown, but replied, “Oh, okay.” I chuckled as I rubbed the rest of the remaining water off of him. I had to clean April, too, after Red shook all that water onto her and me.

After they were cleaned up, I let the water drain from the bathtub and put the towels and soap away. April and Red watched the water vanish from the tub in amazement. They never witnessed water disappearing like this before. I smiled as I watched them look at the draining water until it was completely gone. After that, I knelt down and said, “See, I told you taking a bath would be fun.” I wrapped them in my arms for a big hug. They happily returned the hug and said, "Yeah, fun, fun, fun." It made me laugh to hear that.

I then picked them up from the floor and carried them into my bedroom. I reached for a book from my book shelf and began to read a story to them while they lied down on my bed beside me. When I got halfway through the chapter we left off on last night, Apirl slowly studdered, "W-w-wy...?" She was trying to say my name, but she couldn't find the right sounds.

I answered, "What's up, April?"

"Can... can w-we have a-a-no-ther b-bath s-soon?" She studdered.

I had to chuckle at her for asking a funny question, but I kindly replied, "Sure April, you can have another bath soon."

She smiled a big grin and nuzzled her nose on my lap. Red lied down beside her, and the both of them continued to listen to the story. While I continued reading, I kept feeling great joy seeing the ponies so happy. We haven't been together for a long time, but I'm already forming this attachment to them ever since I first met them a month ago. I've really come to care about them and they do the same for me. I still don't know when they might have to go back to Equestria, but I hope they'll stay a while longer. I'm so glad they're here right now. We've played together, learned together, read books together, and even drew pictures together.

After a few minutes, we did something else that we also like to do: we slept on the bed -- together.

THE END