//------------------------------// // Leap Before You Flush (Rumble) // Story: Potty Training Tales // by SuperPinkBrony12 //------------------------------// Despite what had happened with Lightning Dust during a performance in Ponyville (shortly thereafter she “mysteriously” went missing), the Washouts recovered pretty quickly. But Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse both soon discovered that the Washouts didn’t work so well with only two performers. They needed a third. And it just so happened that there was a young pegasus who could fill the part, despite the fact that he hadn’t yet “washed out” of the Wonderbolts (but considering his brother was an actual Wonderbolt, that was probably for the better). “So, you’ll let me join your group of flyers even though the Wonderbolts think I’m not old enough to fly with them, and my brother agrees?” Rumble asked the two older pegasi when they offered him a spot in their group. Rolling Thunder flashed an unusual wide grin. “But of course, mate. We Washouts don’t really have an age limit. Long as you’re a halfway decent flyer and can fit into the smallest suit we got, you can join.” Short Fuse was quick to point out. “And you know what the Washouts motto is?” He then shouted! “You’d better know it for your sake, because I’m not teaching it to you!” Rolling Thunder just gestured a hoof to calm her companion and teammate. “Easy there, Short Fuse. No need to scare the tyke away,” She promptly told Rumble. “The Washouts’ motto is simple: ‘Leap before you look’. By joining us, you agree to throw caution to the wind and do the most extreme of extreme stunts!” “It’s wicked cool!” Short Fuse declared. “So whaddya say, kiddo? Are you in or are you in?” Without hesitation, Rumble signed the contract given to him. The Washouts sounded pretty cool from what he’d heard. But he felt confident in his belief that they weren’t completely reckless and careless. He was only flying with them because he wasn’t old enough to join the Wonderbolts. Once he came of age, if he was still with the Washouts, he planned to leave. But for now, flying with the Washouts sounded like fun. “I hope my big brother doesn’t take this too personally. He’s always so overprotective of me. I can take care of myself!” Rumble thought. Neither the pegasus colt or the two older pegasi recruiting him could’ve anticipated what was to come. A problem in which the Washouts’ reckless ways and lack of regard for personal safety would catch up to them, and in the most unusual of ways. Rumble was quickly made front and center for the Washouts rebranded image, masquerading as Half Pint Dynamite 2.0 (Rolling and Short refused to say anything about the original Half Pint Dynamite). And for the first couple of shows he starred in, despite some close calls with the Crushinator Jaws of Smashalot (patent pending), everything went well. It probably helped that they were close to Ponyville but not too close. However, one day during a packed show where the roar of the crowd was deafening, things didn’t quite go smoothly for Rumble. He and the Washouts had tried to attempt a stunt that had previously failed: A launched scooter jump. This time, although the scooter avoided being tangled in a rope as it rolled down the hill and towards the ramp, Rumble was thrown off the handlebars midway through! The audience gasped in horror as Rumble only just remembered to flap his wings before he hit the ground head first at high speed! The impact was severe enough to knock him out cold! Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse immediately rushed to their injured teammate’s side and carted him off, ending the show way before the intended finale. Doctor Stable was anything but pleased to have Rolling and Short come barging in through the front doors of Ponyville General Hospital with Rumble in tow. “That’s twice now that you Washouts have endangered a child’s life with your reckless ways. What do you have to say for yourselves?” “Please, doc, you can lecture us all you want later. But right now, you gotta help Half Pint Dynamite 2.0 here!” Rolling Thunder pleaded. “I promise, from now on the scooter launch is only gonna be done by trained Washouts. No more newbies.” “I’m not getting on a scooter and you can’t make me!” Short Fuse bellowed at the top of his lungs! Rolling Thunder only replied. “Just ignore Short Fuse, doc. He’s shaken up ‘cause of what happened with the kid. I’ll work on calming him down so’s he’s not all jumpy and twitchy. You just focus on gettin’ the kid ‘ere back on his hooves.” Doctor Stable sighed, turning away from the two adults as he turned his attention to the badly injured young one they’d brought before him. “Well, I’ll do the best I can. It looks like you managed to get him here in a relatively fast amount of time.” Short Fuse beamed with pride! “You’d be surprised what you can do when somepony’s life is at stake! And who says that we Washouts don’t care about our newbies?” The doctor just frowned. “If you really cared you wouldn’t have put Rumble in such a dangerous situation in the first place. But we can discuss who’s responsible for what later.” Then he left, wheeling Rumble on a stretcher into the emergency room. It seemed like hours ticked by before Doctor Stable emerged from the ER, wiping the sweat from his brows. Short Fuse and Rolling Thunder immediately stood at attention despite not having moved an inch from their current positions! “How is he, doc?” Short Fuse was the first to inquire about the status of the Washouts’ newest member. “Is he gonna be okay?” Doctor Stable briefly nodded his head. “Rumble will pull through. Your mad rush to the hospital probably helped,” But then he cleared his throat. “However, there are some ‘complications’ you should both be aware of. Perhaps it’s best if you were shown instead of told.” The two adult pegasi were led by Doctor Stable to the room where Rumble was recovering. Upon entering the room, it was clear that something wasn’t right with him. Rumble sat up in his hospital bed, he didn’t seem to realize where he was. He looked rather frightened by all the doctors and nurses that were hovering over him, checking his vital signs and looking over every inch of his body for injuries. And most of all he had a large white medical diaper taped around his rump. Upon seeing Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse, something seemed to click in his mind as the colt garbled out. “Mama? Dada?” Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse blinked in surprise as Rolling Thunder questioned. “You hit your head or somethin’, mate? I ain’t your mama, and Short Fuse ain’t your pop.” “What the hay did you do to him?” Short Fuse screamed at Doctor Stable at the top of his lungs! “Explain yourself, now!” Doctor Stable remained calm as he took a deep breath and used his magic to project a scan. “I haven’t done anything to Rumble. You see, when he crash landed during your show, among his injuries was trauma to the head and brain. The good news is, it doesn’t appear to be permanent. Eventually, the brain should recover so long as he suffers no further blows to the head. However, the bad news is, that the damage was enough to inflict something akin to a mental regression. And alongside that appears to have been some loss of speech and fine motor skills, which includes control of bodily functions.” “That explains the pampers,” Rolling Thunder observed. “And I guess the tyke had the same reaction baby ducklings have to the first thing they see after hatching.” But Short Fuse roared! “I’m not changing diapers!” “The diaper is out of caution more than anything,” Doctor Stable confessed. “It seems that Rumble retains control to not wet or mess himself. But in his current mental state he may not always be fully aware of when he has to ‘go’ as it were. This should pass once he’s had time to fully recover, and will likely retain little to no memory of this period. To him it’ll be like he went to sleep and just woke up after a long nap. Unfortunately, there’s little more we can do for him here at the hospital. I would suggest you inform his parents or legal guardians about this and allow them to care for him until this passes.” However, Rolling Thunder happened to look at Rumble at that very moment, while also processing everything the doctor was telling her. Something in the back of her mind (perhaps maternal instinct) caused her to feel a sense of attachment to the mentally regressed colt. “That won’t be necessary, doc. We’ll take care of the little one ‘til he’s back on his hooves. It ain’t like we can have a foal be part of the Washouts. We may be crazy, but we’re not that crazy.” “Are you out of your mind?” Short Fuse protested! “I just said I’m not changing diapers, and I meant it!” Rolling started to grin from ear to ear. “Who said anything about havin’ to change diapers, Short? If he doesn’t absolutely need those pampers, I think we can help him get out of ‘em. Beats havin’ to tell his brother what happened.” So it was that Rumble was released from the hospital and put into the care of Rolling and Short against the better judgement of Doctor Stable (not even framing it as “community service” or a “punishment” could convince him that it was the right course of action). Perhaps it was because of that that he had Rumble sent home with them still wearing a medical diaper, and with at least a full pack’s worth of spares and changing supplies. The pegasus trio ended up crashing at Rolling Thunder’s loft, seeing as it was the closest to the hospital and also the least likely place to draw unwanted attention given how… plain it was.But it was a benefit in this case. It meant eyes wouldn’t be on them, and that would give Rolling a chance to put her little “idea” to work. She had made sure to explain it to her partner, who quickly came around to the idea when he realized what it would mean if it was pulled off right. “Okay, peewee,” Rolling Thunder spoke up in a tone of voice that was only slightly softer than her usual one, locking eyes firmly with Rumble. “Short and I don’t really wanna be changing you in and out of those pampers, and the doc said that you’re a big enough colt to not really need ‘em. So’s we think that it’s time to teach you the big pony way to answer nature’s call. Besides, it’s a ton more awesome to go cruisin’ around with nothin’ on than it is to have some oversized pillow hugging your rear all the time.” Rumble blinked but seemed to understand. “Mama and Dada teach me how to be big pony?” Rolling protested. “Whoa there, mate! I still ain’t your mama. Think of me as your fun loving Aunt Rolling Thunder, or just Auntie Thunder for short,” Gesturing to Short Fuse she declared. “And this is your Uncle Short Fuse.” “Do not call me Uncle Short for short!” Short Fuse bellowed with narrowed eyes. “I’m Uncle Short Fuse and that’s that.” “Anyway,” Rolling not so subtly changed the subject. “So, you ditch the diaper, and then Uncle Short and I will tell you what you’re going to do. Got it, mate?” Rumble nodded and obeyed. It was hard to undo the tapes holding up his diaper, but he somehow managed to do so. For some reason it felt oddly familiar and liberating to have the padding slide all the way down him and landed onto the floor. Rolling smiled as she took Rumble by the hoof. “Alright, nice start. Now follow us,” She led Rumble along the floor of her apartment to a rather cramped bathroom that was barely big enough for the three ponies that soon occupied it. “Okay, short stuff. Now for the tricky part, but I know you can do it,” She gestured to a bowl shaped object that was only a few hoofsteps from her. “That there’s the toilet, the almighty porcelain throne. You’re gonna climb up on the seat and sit down to do whatever it is you need to do. Then your Uncle Short Fuse and I will clean you up. Got it?” Rumble nodded again. “Uh-huh, gonna try for Auntie Thunder.” Despite no longer having the diaper on, he clumsily waddled his way past the grown-ups and to the toilet as his “Auntie Thunder” helped him onto the seat just to be safe. Rolling and Short decided that it was better to wait outside the bathroom rather than in it, trusting Rumble to manage and wanting to give him at least some semblance of privacy. It wasn’t long before the two grown-ups could hear a faint tinkling sound, and they knew it could only mean one thing. Heck, even if they didn’t know what it meant Rumble’s call of “All done” left little doubts in their mind. “Great job, mate!” Rolling Thunder cheered with exaggerated praise as she entered the bathroom. “See how easy that was?” Rumble nodded as he hopped down from the toilet and stood on his hooves. “Uh-huh.” “Well you gotta do that every time you have to go, ‘cause I’m not cleaning up after you, kid.” Short Fuse declared, switching from praise to a warning in the blink of an eye. “Don’t mind your Uncle Short Fuse, he’s proud of you, mate,” Rolling Thunder declared with a smile. “And so am I. Don’t you agree that using the toilet is way more awesome than going in your diapers?” “Yeah,” Rumble agreed. “So, now I all done?” Rolling Thunder giggled. “Not so fast, champ in the making! There’s a couple more things you gotta do first, like this,” She pulled out some rolls of toilet paper. “Now hold still so I can clean you up,” The colt reluctantly obeyed, watching as the used roles were discarded into the toilet bowl. “Now, you ready for the best part?” Rolling asked Rumble who nodded. She picked up the colt and moved him closer to the silver handle attached to the toilet tank. “When you’re all done, you gotta flush! Go right ahead, mate! Just push down that handle.” The excited colt reached out a hoof and pressed the handle down. Suddenly there was a mighty roar! Rumble was so frightened that he flew atop the tank, and Rolling Thunder had to calm him (and coax him) down. “It’s okay, mate. It ain’t anything to be afraid of,” She reassured Rumble. “All it is is water. See?” Nervously, Rumble looked down into the bowl just in time to see the rapidly spinning water turn into a dizzying whirlpool. He watched as the toilet paper was sucked down through a hole at the bottom. After a few seconds, the water swirled down the drain and disappeared briefly before it returned, being crystal clear.  “So, once you’ve been wiped up and have flushed, you gotta wash your hooves.” Rolling Thunder added. “Gotta scrub ‘em nice and clean, it’s what awesome big ponies do. And you wanna be like the awesome big ponies, right?” “Uh-huh!” Rumble declared, feeling much better as he made his way over to the sink and did as instructed. “I can’t believe your silly idea actually worked.” Short Fuse whispered to his partner. “Neither can I, mate,” Rolling Thunder whispered back. “But it was a risk worth taking if you ask me. Now we just gotta keep an eye on junior here until he returns to normal.”