Twilight relaxed back in her chair, leaning it and then holding the back legs steady in her magenta field. Her desk was scattered in books and papers. Outside, the moon had risen. A single candle flickered on her desk though magilight still cast light over the room. Even though, Twilight liked her candle. It made the ten year old feel like a real scholar. She let the chair snap back and nearly stumbled into the desk. Sighing, she began to collect the papers, stacking them into piles. A purple hatchling dragon with purple scales and green spines pulled himself up on the desk and watched what she was doing with wide, green eyes.
Eventually, he began to quickly snatch up the books and put them in a pile that he hopped onto before curling up for a nap. Twilight rolled her eyes, smiled and levitated him off leading to him mewling in protest. She placed him back down and he curled up once more on his nest. Twilight scratched her chin. "You did an awfully good job of stacking those books...maybe you could be my assistant one day."
Spike gurgled happily at this news. Twilight stood and slid the chair back under her desk. It was bath time. Humming happily to herself, she stepped over to her closet and floated down a white, fluffy towel. Spike opened one eye and, upon seeing what she was doing, hopped off the stack of books and waddled over to her.
She lifted down and he hopped onto her back after she floated down a second towel. Spike settled himself in the middle of her back, which had become his usual seat. The pre-teen continued to hum her happy tune, a lullaby her mother had once sang to her. It calmed Spike and when she hummed it, he had learned it mean to follow her for either meal time or bath time.
Normally, the young drake would have a small army of caretakers. Dragon experts (the few there were) would have handled feeding and bathing him. However, Spike had strongly imprinted on her, more so than other young Unicorn students and their dragons. Twilight had no idea why.
His basket was right next to her bed, but he rarely slept in it, preferring a spot by her side. Twilight laid both towels on her back and pranced towards the spacious bathroom, opening the mahogany door with a flick of her magic. Her mom and herself (when she was home on the weekends) kept the bathrooms clean, but her bathroom at home wasn't this clean. A veritable legion of maids washed and kept this bathroom downright immaculate. It felt strangely wrong to Twilight to not have responsibility for keeping her own rooms clean and yet...it also felt sort of liberating.
Her humming moved into the second verse of the lullaby. The bathroom shone, the tiles the purest alabaster. The toilet was regular porcelain, but Twilight had never seen such shiny porcelain. The walls were the same nearly glowing white as the tiles.
The bathroom was large enough for two fully grown Ponies, more than enough for a filly and her baby dragon. Twilight set the towels onto the sink and wondered if those handles were actual silver. They probably were. She turned the crystal knob and warm water slid down into the basin. The water filled the basin at a slow gradual pace. Spike stared at it from atop his perch. Sometimes the water was cool to his sensitive belly. It had to be hot enough to meet his strict criteria.
Twilight paddled her hoof through the bathwater which was now almost a quarter full. No steam curled from its surface which meant that Spike would throw a fit if she tried to put him in it. She nudged him down from her back and he scrambled onto the side of the tub. "The water's nice, isn't it?"
Spike flipped out his tongue and released an unsatisfied hiss that roughly translated to "hotter!"
"Alright, alright."
She twisted the knob a little closer to the hot section and then drew back her hoof in pain when she tested the water. The knob was quickly turned back to the cool section. Strangely, she'd noticed if the water cooled down, it put Spike in a dormant state. This wasn't something she wanted to experiment with too much.
Still, dripping little cool droplets on his scales when he wouldn't sleep seemed to calm him before bedtime and he actually happily gurgled when she did it.
So why in the world did he need the bathwater to be so scaldingly hot?
Why didn't babies-regardless of species-make sense?
Spike frowned at the water and poked it. Any annoyance Twilight felt melted away at that expression. "The water's not so bad, Spikey. See?"
She dipped her left hoof into the liquid. The warm water encircled her foreleg. Spike glanced at her curiously when she dipped in her right foreleg. Then, she stepped in her back legs. Spike blinked again, tilting his head. If Twi said it was okay...
Very hesitantly, he poked in a claw. The water was warm. Not quite warm enough, but still warm. Twilight relaxed into the water, laying her belly down on the floor. Wisps of steam lifted up from the waves displaced by her body's weight. Spike poked the water again and Twilight sighed in contentment. "You can join me if you want. Or maybe I'll just keep all this nice, warm water all to myself." Her voice took on a singsong quality.
Spike bit his lip. Twilight's magic cut off the flow of water. It did look warm. Inviting. Instinct told him it should be warmer. But she did look awfully happy.
But something else was missing. What was it? What could it possibly be?
Oh! He knew!
"Bubbas!" He demanded, jumping up and down.
Twilight opened one eye. "Bubbas?"
"Bubbas! Bubbas! Bubbas!" He pounded his legs from side to side.
Twilight grinned. "Then bubbles we shall have!"
She opened the door under the bathroom sink and pulled out a bottle of bubble bath, floating it over to herself and holding it aloft in the air, unscrewing the cap. Spike and Twilight stared at it expectantly. Nothing came out.
Spike's lower lip trembled.
Twilight's lower lip also trembled. How in the world could they be out of bubble bath?
Tears filled Spike's eyes until Twilight embraced him in her magic and brought him into her waiting forelegs. Spike nuzzled her.
"Okay, so there's no bubbas-bubbles."
"Want bubbas!"
He struck the water with his little fist.
"Hey!" Twilight shouted as a wave slapped her face. A giggle broke from her lips. This only encouraged the little dragon who started enthusiastically smacking the water with more and more waves striking Twilight's face, soaking her fur and her mane. Spike giggled and cackled like a mad drake.
Twilight wanted to stop him, she truly did. But the bursts of water against her face felt really good. Spike at this point had forgotten the original reason for his tantrum, only delighting in the laughter his antics were eliciting from his caretaker.
"Oh, you are going to get it!" Twilight giggled in a not-at-all intimidating tone of voice as she splashed the water herself. Spike was thrown into the air and landed in the water. Immediately, he bounded back up, whacking the water with all his might (which wasn't too terribly much).
Twilight's giggles filled the bathroom as the droplets sprayed onto her face. She focused with her magic and collected a bubble of water. Spike's eyes widened when he saw the giant bubble form over his head. It fell with a mighty splash and he laugh.
Retaliating, he pounced upon Twilight, attacking her ticklish spots. Twilight squirmed and let another bubble, this one cleverly covered in soap, fall onto her draconic charge. Spike squealed in delight and Twilight covered her eyes against a liquid assault, Spike scooping up the water and flinging it against her.
Twilight scooped up water in her aura and beat back the ferocious tickle dragon who was pulled into the current. The now soapy water splashed and spilled over the tub, running over onto the floor. Twilight barely noticed, being preoccupied with the fierce dragon baby that was clawing at the water.
He barely even noticed when she slid a bar of soap and quickly lathered him up before pouring water over him. She floated the soap over and scrubbed the fur of her back, neck, tummy and her hooves, grinning to herself while Spike rinsed her, completely unaware of what he was doing.
"Thanks." She sent a wave of water into him, knocking him onto his back. He paddled in the water, doing a backstroke and kicking his legs. More water spilled over the side of the little tub.
Spike dived and jumped back into the tub. Twilight didn't have time to block the wave of water that covered her. Spike fell back and kicked up his legs in glee. Twilight snorted before picking him up by his feet and scrubbing the appendages clean before gently depositing him in the tub.
The floor was now soaked, the water having flown over the tub. Twilight gave it a wary look, but then Spike tackled her with another splash. Twilight held up her hooves, trying to block the continuous splashing as Spike slapped at the water again. Twilight squeezed out a dollop of shampoo which she scrubbed into her mane and tail. She dipped her tail in the water and poured water over her mane before getting the special dragon shampoo, pulling Spike over to herself with her magic. He mostly stayed still while she scrubbed the shampoo into his spines and dipped him into the water.
The minute he broke free he returned to his previous game. Twilight relaxed into the tub, letting the droplets of water rain over her. She occasionally sent a splash of water herself, eliciting more splashes from Spike. Eventually, Spike tired. He swam up to her and yawned.
"Getting tired, my little dragon?"
Spike nodded against her shoulder. Twilight stretched. The water had begun to cool. She could put in more hot water, of course, but...she yawned. Bedtime wasn't far off. Levitating up Spike, she stepped onto the floor and yelped as she lost her hoofing. Only a quick application of magic prevented her from completely skidding all over the floor. Spike woke up and hopped off her back and did lose his footing, rolling over into a ball and bouncing onto his claws.
Seemingly delighted by this, he rolled over again. Twilight wrapped a towel around herself and scrubbed down. Spike got the same treatment, though the little whine he gave showed he was not fond of being toweled off. He skittered away the minute she withdrew the towel.
She lit up her horn and focused on a heating spell, jumping back when the water evaporated in a hiss of steam. A thin trail of ash was left. A gust of wind dealt with that. She was going to hate having to report herself for that in the morning. Celestia said she didn't need to report magical "oopsies" anymore so long as nopony was hurt or anything was broken, but she hated keeping things from her!
Spike curled up and sucked on his tail, a sure sign that sleep was about to claim him. Twilight lifted him and set him onto her back, closing the door behind her and depositing him onto his basket, pulling up the blanket and planting a kiss on his forehead before pulling the covers up over herself.