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// Chapter 1 - Our  Precious Swaddle Puff 
// Story: Pinkie 'swaddle' Pie 
// by Yosh-E-O 
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“Wowie-kazowie!” awed Pinkie upon entering into the extravagantly designed nursery.  The walls were all painted to simulate a cartoon-like meadow filled with doe-eyed foals doing all sorts of foal things.  The ceiling and upper walls were made to look like a genuine sky where foal Pegasi snuggled into clouds and Celestia’s Cutie Mark was drawn into the light fixture that hung at the nursery’s center.  “You guys really went all out!”

Sandy and Cream smiled.
“Anything for our little foal,” cooed Sandy while raising a hoof to her blushing face.

“So where is the little cutie?” asked Pinkie with a beaming smile.  “Auntie Pinkie wants to say hello.”

“Our precious Swaddle Puff is right over there,” Cream Puff said while gesturing towards a crib that appeared the size of a queen-sized bed.

“Golly gee!” remarked Pinkie as she realized how the room was filled with foal furniture that could easily be used by a full-grown pony.  “I didn’t know you could get foal stuff so big!”

Cream and sandy said nothing as they found themselves nervously holding hooves.

Pinkie popped her pink head over the railing of the crib.  Her blue eyes then grew to the size of saucers upon seeing ‘the foal’.

“Is everything… alright?” Sandy puffed nervously asked.

“Uh,” Pinkie replied with the best smile she could muster.  “She’s… really big.”

An awkward pause ensued.

“Hey!” cheered Pinkie upon realizing things weren’t as happy as they should be.  “I got this.”

“You… do?” gulped Cream Puff.

“Sure,” waved Pinkie as she looked into the crib to see the pastel-pink ‘foal’ fast asleep with a hoof in her mouth.  “You two go on ahead and know Pinkie “Responsibility” Pie has got everything under control!”

Sandy and Cream smiled at each other before giving a shared nod of approval to the childlike mare who had a trio of balloons for a Cutie Mark.

“Our train leaves in about two hours,” stated Sandy.  “How about we show you where everything is?”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” bounced Pinkie.  “And her name is Swaddle Puff?”

The parents seemed lost in thought as Sandy replied, “Yeah.  Our precious Swaddle Puff.”

“And you’re okay staying here until we get back?” asked Cream Puff as he nervously rubbed his hooves together.  “We just need to finish getting everything cleaned out of our old home in Fillydelphia and we’ll be back fast as lightning.”

“Pssh,” waved Pinkie with a smile.  “It’ll be like a sleepover.  Swaddle and I will be total besties and you’ll come back telling me just how awesome I am at foal sitting.”

“Mrs. Cake said you help out at Sugar Cube Corner with baking and watching the twins,” stated Cream Puff.  “It’d be okay if you took our precious Swaddle over to play with the twins during the day.  Swaddle gets along very well with other foals.”

“Sounds great!” chirped Pinkie while she started to push the doting parents out of the nursery.  “But you two have a train to catch and Auntie Pinkie is ready to serve up lots of ‘Responsibility Pie’ while you’re away not worrying about anything.”

“Okay,” giggled Sandy.  “We know you’ll be perfect for caring for our foal while we’re away.”

“We never like to leave our Swaddle Puff,” Cream stated.  “But we’ll be back real soon to give lots of loving to our special foal.”

“And until then,” Pinkie said as she got the parents out of the nursery, turned out the light, and shut the door.  “Auntie Pinkie has everything under control!”