//------------------------------//
// Lets Get Ready. 
// Story: Little Dragon Daycare 
// by TAD2 
//------------------------------//

A half an hour has passed, Pinkie just finished off her granite, Fluttershy was eating the last slice of her grape, the soup pot was empty, and all the girls had a slight belly bulge. Spike laughed  at the sight of all of the satisfied faces. "Ok, lets hear the verdict, will the new princess be allowed to cook again, or will she be banned from the kitchen, never to return?" Asked Spike. 

AJ gave Spike a thumbs up. "I loved it, but I'm stuffed." Said AJ, she at 4 grilled cheeses, 3 bowls of soup, and the equivalent of a whole watermelons worth of the fruit salad. She was a farm worker, and in all sense of the word, a bottomless pit. So it was rare to see her stuffed. "But it was not as good as your food." 

Rainbow lifted a wing, she was just as full as AJ, but she was a air born creature so she was going to have to waddle like a penguin untill her body burns off enough to let her gain lift. "I can't feel my belly." Said Rainbow. "And I'm ok with that. But I'm still not used to not having meat in my food, so I found the soup lacking." It was true, Harpies and many of the kids they look after were carnivorous, and that's ok, but it took some time for the others to get used to the sight of a piece of ham.

Spike chuckled. "So Shy, how was the soup?" Asked Spike. Fluttershy normally was happy with her grape, or apple sliver, but today Spike decided to give her a small spoon full of the soup, he wanted all of the kids to try it, so everyone could give their opinion of the food. 

"It was delicious." Said Fluttershy, then she burped loudly. Fluttershy blushed hard, she was so embarrassed, but she started to chuckle. "Excuse me."

Spike laughed. "Its fine Shy, it was pretty good though." He looked to Twilight and Moondancer. "So Twi, Moondancer, lets hear your vote." 

Twilight shrugged. "It was pretty good, but I found the fruit salad a little to sweet, she should of used some oranges instead of grapes to counteract the sweet with some sour." Said Twilight. 

Moondancer nodded. "Yes, it was too sweet, but the soup was great if not a tad under seasoned, but that's just me, I did like the grilled cheese very much though." 

Spike looked at Rarity, she was sucking on her soul sickle. "So Rarity, what about you?" 

Rarity looked at Spike. "Well, the soup was great, the sandwich was a little too overdone, and mommy's soul is as great as always."  

Celestia sighed as Pinkie handed her a little white flag. "Here you go, also thanks for the granite, it was really yummy."

Celestia waved the white flag. "Fine, I admit defeat." Said Celestia. Then Celestia looked at the flag. "Wait when did this become a contest?" Asked Celestia. 

Spike laughed. "Well, you see, I'm the head chef at the Little Dragon, I was trained professionally when I went to college to help pay for books and classes. But when Cadence joined up, I had to make sure that the kids could be fed if I couldn't make them lunch. So for a week, we had a cook off to see if she could compete with me." Spike smirked. "I'm still undefeated." He looked to the girls. "Girls point at the winner, majority vote wins."

Twilight, Moondancer, Fluttershy, AJ, Rainbow, and Rarity all pointed at Spike. Pinkie doesn't get a vote because she can't taste, but she pointed to Spike because Earth granite is delicious. Cadance sighed. "And the winner is the king of the castle, Spike." Said Cadance as she lifted Spikes arm.

All the girls cheered. Spike laughed as he walked over to Celestia. "Lets hear it for our competitor, Celestia." Said Spike, and even more cheering was heard. 

Spike laughed at the enthusiasm. "Ok, were going outside so everyone can burn off lunch." 

All the girls gasped as they raised their hands. Spike smiled as he looked at the group of girls. "Lets see, who do we want to go with today?" Asked Spike. Then Spike looked at Moondancer, she was confused on what was going on. "Moondancer, sorry I forgot to tell you, everyday during outside play time, we visit one of the worlds, and seeing as its your first day, how about we let you choose."

Moondancer was worried. "Um...How about...." She looked around at all the girls, she knew nothing about the worlds they came from and she had no idea if her decision was going to be well received, then she looked at Spike. "Spikes world." Said Moondancer. 

Spike shrugged. "Ok, to the human world we go." Said Spike. He then started to clap again to get the girls into a marching order. "You know the drill, before we go out what do we do?" Asked Spike. 

"We put on sun screen." Said all the girls.

"And?" 

"We don't leave the area."

"And?"

"We don't cause trouble." 

Spike smiled. "Right." Said Spike. "Ok, line up in front of the bathroom." Said Spike as he finished clapping. All the girls nodded as they lined up at the door to the small bathroom. Spike walked inside of the bathroom. It was fairly normal, for him at least, the bathroom was like a mini version of the front door, so when a human opens the door, it changed to a human bathroom. So Spike being Spike, made sure that this was where all of the medical supplies go, to make double sure that if needed, he could get to them. Spike walked into to a large glass case. Spike pulled out his key ring that had a small security lock key and opened the medical case. 

Inside of the case sat AJ's EPI pen, some simple childes aspirin, miles of medical tape, piles of fresh gauze, a few splints, a large bottle of antibacterial gel, a bottle of spray antibacterial, and every known size, shape, style, thickness, adhesive strength, cut, weave, design, and color of bandage in the known universe, and even some from another universe. If he wanted to Spike could of supplied a large planes crash worth of people with small care. But right now none of that was important, right now Spike needed to find the tube of sunblock for the kids. "Come on, I know its some where in here, we didn't use it all yesterday." Said Spike as he started to look in the cabinet.

"Spike, what's up?" Asked Cadance.

Spike sighed. "I can't seem to find the sunblock, you didn't throw it away yesterday, only Sandbar needed it."

Cadance popped her head into the bathroom. "Right, check the top shelf, it should be on the right of the emergency defibrillator, and left of the air bag. We just got the new tube in and with all the stuff it wouldn't fit on the shelf." Said Cadance. 

Spike nodded as he looked at the top shelf, and there it was right where Cadance said it was. "Found it." Said Spike as he grabbed the bottle of FPS 70 sunblock. "Who's first?" Asked Spike as he closed the medical case. 

AJ walked in to the bathroom. "Right here." 

Spike nodded. "Ok." Spike was always prepared and the sunblock was no exception. After a very embarrassing incident that involved Cadance needing to wash AJ's body to get some human sunblock out of her fur, Spike started looking into sun screen from the pony world and a few others, just to find a all purpose, fur and skin, non stick sunblock, so no one had to sit out of play time. He found one, it came from the wolf world, was relatively cheap, and super effective.

Spike squeezed some sunblock into his hands and into the hands of AJ. "Ok AJ, I'll get your back and legs, you get your face, ears, neck, and arms." 

AJ nodded.

Once Spike had finished and AJ was finished getting her face, Spike did the inspection of her job. "Face, ears, neck, arms, and your legs are done. Your clear." 

AJ smiled as she walked out of the bathroom, allowing the next girl to enter, and that was Fluttershy. She flew into the bathroom and landed on the sink. "Spike, could you help me with my wings today?"

Spike smiled. "Of course Shy." Fairies were very simple to deal with, the only problem was their wings, they were super sensitive, and were very delicate. Spike placed a single drop of sunblock onto the sinks surface. Fluttershy grabbed some and placed it on her body. Once she was done Spike used the left over and scooped it up with one finger, he used his fingers to apply the sunblock to her wings, he needed to be slow, careful, and light. 

Once she was done, she flew out of the room, letting Pinkie hop in. Pinkie didn't need sunblock, but Spike always let her add some to her body, she says it makes her slippery. "Here you go Pinkie." Said Spike as he squirted out a small glob. Pinkie's body absorbed the glob and her body became slightly shiny. 

Pinkie smiled at Spike. "Thanks Spike." Said Pinkie as she slid out of the bathroom. 

Next up was Twilight and Moondancer. "Ok, lets get Moondancer out of the way first." Said Spike as he applied a small amount of sunblock to her hands. "Moondancer start off with your legs, then move up to your neck and arms. I'll get your face, and then you can get your horn." Unicorn horns were directly linked to their brains, and it was a large bundle of nerves, meaning it was really sensitive to touch.

Moondancer nodded as she started to rub in the sunblock. Spike got her face and ears, but left her horn to her. Spike chuckled as he remembered what happened to his grandfather when he met a unicorn for the first time. Scorpan decided to grab a mares horn, this was back when he first got the place, and he wanted to see a unicorn. Long story short, he got kicked in the lower regions by the mare. 

Spike looked to Twilight and did the same. 

Once the unicorns were done, they smiled and walked out of the bathroom to let Rarity in. "Hello Spike." 

Spike smiled. "Hey Rarity, you know the drill." Rarity nodded. Demons were normally covered in hard skin like armor that covered the majority of their bodies, tail, and wings, but since Rarity was part Succubus, she didn't. Succubae were the exact opposite, they had soft skin, thin tails, and more delicate wings. So Rarity was somewhere in between, she had soft skin and a thin tail, but her wings were strong and very durable. Spike placed a small portion of sunblock in her hands. "I'll get your face and back, you get your tail and legs." Said Spike. 

Rarity sighed. "I can get my face, why don't you get my tail?" Asked Rarity. 

Spike sighed. "Because, I don't want to make Hondo mad." Said Spike. It was true, for demons, touching tails was seen as the equivalent of making out. 

Rarity huffed. "Fine." Spike smiled as he started to cover her face. Rarity got her tail and legs. Now that she was fully protected she looked at Spike. "Spike, for me, can I have a kiss for being a good girl?" 

Spike sighed as he nodded. "Fine." Rarity smiled as she puckered her lips, but that was a huge no in Spikes book, he instead just kissed her forehead. "There." 

Rarity glared at him as she huffed. "One day." Said Rarity upset that Spike didn't kiss her, as she stomped out of the bathroom.

Spike sighed. "Last up." Said Spike. Slowly Rainbow waddled in to the bathroom. She was still stuffed from lunch. "Ok Rainbow, I'll get your wings and face, if I can find it, and you get your legs." 

Rainbow nodded, she walked up to Spike and her wings popped out, she let Spike apply the sun block to them. Once he was done, she turned to let Spike do her face. Once Spike was done, he gave Rainbow a small amount to go on her legs. 

Now that all of the girls were ready, Spike applied some sunblock to his face and arms. Now that he was done, Spike placed the bottle of sun screen back into the shelf and closed the case. He walked out of the bathroom. "Ok, lets head outside." Said Spike. 

All the girls cheered as they ran to the front door. Spike sighed as he looked to Cadence and Celestia. "Celestia, this is the time I give for breaks, I can handle them for an hour." Said Spike, he looked to Cadence. "Cadence, take her out, show her the area down the road, and buy her lunch today." He looked back to Celestia. "Celestia, make sure to cover your ears, humans are not aware of other worlds, and absolutely no magic." Said Spike. 

"Wait, then why are you letting the kids go outside in your world?" Asked Celestia. 

Spike sighed as he motioned for them to follow. "Because, I technically own 5 acres of land around here, plus..." Said Spike as he opened the door to the human world. All the girls ran out of the daycare and followed a stone walkway to a large fenced in playground. "The farm is pretty much in the middle of nowhere." Spike looked over to Celestia who was silent, she saw no buildings, no roads, no nothing, all she saw was a well maintained field, a small building with a car inside, and a playground. Spike chuckled. "Yep, welcome to the Little Dragon Farm, formally known as the Little Chick egg farm." 

Celestia stepped out of the building, but when she turned around to see the daycare, all that was there was a small single story farm house, it was painted green and purple. Celestia looked at the house, it was small, about half the size of the daycare, and it was clear that there was no room for a basement, then she stuck her head back into the building, everything was still there. Spike laughed. "Yep, it makes no logical sense at all, I have no idea how it works, and neither did Scorpan, we just run with it." 

Celestia looked at Spike shocked. "Then where are we right now?" Asked Celestia. 

Spike shrugged. "About 70 miles or so from the center of a city called Ponyville, that's where I live. Cadence lives not too much farther than that, but she's north of Ponyville, in the mountain town Crystalton." Said Spike, he then looked at his watch. "It'll take you about 20 minutes to hit the first few places to eat, so I would get going." Said Spike. 

Cadance nodded as she grabbed Celestia's hand. "Come on, I know a great place not to far from here, they have the best burgers." Cadance dragged Celestia to her car, a red honda civic. "I will explain more about the human world when we get to the diner."

Cadance tossed Celestia into the back seats, buckled her up, and drove off, heading for the greasy food joint, leaving a very confused Celestia wondering how her life brought her to this moment. 

Spike looked at the car leaving, and he laughed. "Poor Celestia, she has no idea how this became her life." He walked over to a chest used to store pool supplies, Spike pulled out the key ring and unlocked the chest. Inside were some simple toys that the girls liked to play with, but the moment he unlocked the chest it was empty. Spike looked at all the girls playing with the toys. "Well at least they are having fun." Spike walked into the fenced off area and smiled at all the girls. "Ok, we will have the race in 50 minutes! Winner is the fastest in the Daycare." Said Spike. 

AJ and Rainbow glared at each other. Spike sighed as he sat on a small bench near the front gate. This was for him, it had the perfect view of the whole play area, and even if someone came to the farm it was in direct line of sight of the small road to give Spike time to get the girls in quickly. But right now that wasn't a problem, right now his only problem was the possibility of passing out, Cookies breakfast was still hitting Spike hard. Spike leaned back on the bench and tried to relax as he watched all the girls having fun. 

Currently Spike had equipment for all of the kids he looks after, and all of it was perfect for the girls. There were some pipes and tubes for Pinkie to enjoy, and it was always fun for her when Twilight would moved the configuration around. This was the only time Spike let Twilight and other magical species play with their magic, and in all honesty, after Twilights chicken incident, she was showing great control. 

Spike was watching Twilight and Moondancer use the pipes and tubes to make a chemistry set looking setup with Pinkie acting as the liquid. Rainbow was perched on the monkey bars as she tried to preen her feathers. AJ was working on her lassoing, Spike had given her a rope and after driving in a fence post, it made the perfect target for her. Rarity and Fluttershy were playing on the jungle gym Spike had built, it had a swing set, a few slides, a small rock wall, a telescope and many small games that the kids could play. There was also a half buried tractor tire, a sandbox, a soccer goal for the older kids, and a small concrete slab for hopscotch or chalk for them to play on, but right now they were being unused.

Spike sighed as he felt the warm sun on his face, he took a deep calming breath. "This is nice." Said Spike as he felt the cool breeze. 

"SPIKE!" 

"And the peace is gone." Said Spike, he looked to see who was yelling and it was AJ. She was galloping towards him, looking very worried. Normally AJ was very calm so it was weird to see her so worried. "AJ what's wrong?" Asked Spike, then he noticed that she didn't have her hat.  

"Its my hat, it blew off my head, and I couldn't grab it before it got out of the fence." Said AJ on the verge of tears. 

Spike sighed, he was worried that she hurt her hoof again, but this was nothing too bad. "Ok, lets go get it." Said Spike as he got up from his seat. Since day one, Spike didn't like it when the girls left the play area, so when something like a ball or in this case, AJ's hat flew out of the area, it was better for Spike to get it, then one of the girls trying to get it on their own. Spike grabbed AJ's hand as he led her to the gate. They walked the perimeter of the fence and not to far away was the cowboy hat on the ground. Spike sighed as he picked it up, dusted it off and placed it back on her head. He gave the girl a small smile. "There you go AJ." 

AJ smiled as she gave Spike a hug. "Thanks Spike, this is Pa's, and I said I would keep it safe." 

Spike smiled as he returned the hug. "Don't worry AJ, it was an accident and I'm glad you told me, instead of trying to get it yourself." Spike grabbed her hand and led her back to the playground. "But the wind isn't going to lighten up for a while, so why don't you leave it with me until its time to go in?"

AJ nodded, she took off her hat and handed it to Spike. "Yeah, just make sure it stays safe." 

Spike chuckled. "AJ, I look after over 2 dozen kids from different worlds, I think I can look after a small hat for an hour." 

AJ raised her eyebrow. "You sure?"

Spike copied her movement. "Do you want your apple bites?" 

With that said AJ kept her mouth shut, but they still chuckled. When Spike and AJ arrived at the gate, Spike opened the door and let AJ walk in. "Now go play, we got about 40 until the race."

AJ nodded as she ran back to her lasso. Spike sat back on his bench glad to see AJ was back to normal. Spike sighed as he went back to resting. "Well, thankfully nothing bad happened this time." 

"SPIKE?!" Yelled another girl. 

Spike sighed as he looked up to see Pinkie, Twilight and Moondancer looking at him, and it was clear to see that they wanted something. Spike smiled as he looked at the girls. "Hey girls, what's up?" Asked Spike. 

"Can we get some of the chalk out from the chest, we want to see if Pinkie can absorb it." Asked Twilight.  

Spike sighed as he shook his head. "Sorry girls, chalk is made up of salts and Pinkie is mostly water, so it would absorb her more than her absorbing it." All the girls sighed. "But instead of seeing if Pinkie can absorb chalk, why don't you girls go play some hopscotch and see if Pinkie can accurately change the flow of her body to keep her balance?" 

Pinkie gasped as she ran to the slab to start practicing, followed by Moondancer and Twilight, they didn't want to get inaccurate data. Spike sighed as he watched all of the girls doing their own things. Nothing was wrong, no one looked hurt and no one looked like something was going to happen. "Ok, third times the charm." Said Spike as he relaxed. 





"Spike?" Asked AJ. 

Spike looked up, thankful for the interruption, he was so close to falling asleep. "Yep, what's up AJ?" 

"Its time for the race." Said Rainbow as she was on AJ's back, but she looked different, now she wasn't a ball of feathers, you could see her wings, her head full of rainbow colored hair and her bird legs. 

Spike smiled. "Ok, and you look better Rainbow, I missed seeing your face, but now you have no excuse if you lose to AJ."

Rainbow smirked. "I know, I didn't want her to think I was holding back to spare her feelings." 

Spike sighed, Rainbow was very prideful, but she always cared about her friends. "Sure, but the real question is, how are we going to do the race today?" Asked Spike. 

Rainbow looked at AJ, as she looked at Rainbow. Rainbow was good at high speed, short races, but AJ was good with conserving her energy in long, slower races. They looked to Spike. "You choose." Said AJ.

Spike sighed, the play area was about 250 feet by 250 feet, so a race from one end to the other was clear in Rainbows favor, but a full lap was in AJ's favor, the only compromise was a race from a corner to the opposite corner and back again. "Lets do a corner race today, with the usual conditions." Said Spike. 

AJ and Rainbow nodded. The usual conditions were pretty simple, Rainbow could only be 4 feet of the ground, AJ wouldn't veer into Rainbows lane and for the lap to count they had to touch the opposite end. Spike sighed as he stretched his back and legs. "Ok, the terms have been agreed upon, lets gather the others." Said Spike as he whistled to get the others attention.

It only took a few moments for the girls to gather. Spike looked at the girls. "Ok, its time for the race, its going to be a corner and back race." Spike looked at Twilight. "Twilight, can you place the counting spell on the farthest post?" Asked Spike. 

Twilight nodded as her horn glowed slightly, once it stopped glowing, Twilight looked at Spike. "Ok, its done."

Spike smiled. "Thanks Twilight." He looked at the others. "Ok, lets head to the corner and get ready." All the girls nodded.



 

When they arrived there was little time for preparations. AJ and rainbow lined up. "Ready...3....2....1...0" Counted Spike. The moment he reached 0, AJ and Rainbow were off. Spike looked at Pinkie. "Pinkie, your in charge of seeing who wins." 

Pinkie nodded as she stretched her body to act as the finishing line, Pinkie grabbed one of the fence post with her legs and Spike grabbed her arms. "Ok Spike, who do you think will win today?" Asked Pinkie. 

Spike sighed. "In all honesty, I doubt either will win, it always ends in a tie." 

Pinkie nodded. "Yep, but its always funny to see them try." 

"They reached the other side, it looked like AJ's in the lead." Said Twilight as her horn glowed to signal that her counter was used.

It only took a few more moments for the two to cross the Pinkie line, and as Spike predicted, they crossed at the same time. "I won." Cheered Rainbow. 

AJ huffed. "No you didn't, I did." 

They continued to argue for a moment until Spike talked to Pinkie and he got the real results. "So, was I right?" Asked Spike, Pinkie nodded. Spike sighed as he gathered all of the little slime girl into a pile so she could reform. 

Once Pinkie was whole, Spike walked over to the girls who were still arguing. "Ok, the high speed Pinkie has finished deciding on the race, the winner is...."

"Please be me, please be me, please be me." Muttered Rainbow and AJ.

"No one, it was a tie." Said Spike. Both girls groaned, but following the rules of their first race, the high speed Pinkie was the judge, and her verdict was final. 

"Fine." Said the two, they turned to each other, and shook hands and wings. "You did good." Said AJ. 

Rainbow nodded. "You too, I thought I would get to the checkpoint first though."

Spike smiled seeing that they were still friends after all of this and the sportsmanship the two had. But then he noticed Cadences Honda driving back into the barn. Spike looked at the girls. "Ok, that concludes outside play time for today. Go around and pick up all of the stuff you used today." Said Spike. All the girls nodded as they gathered all of their toys. 

Once the chest was full and the area was clear, Spike locked the chest. Spike looked at the girls. "Ok, lets head inside, next up we have arts and crafts time." Said Spike. 

Rarity and Fluttershy gasped as they ran to the door, Spike laughed as Cadence and Celestia walked over. Spike smiled at the two. "So, did she like the Tasty Treat?" 

Cadence nodded. "You have no idea, turns out she has never had a milk shake."

Spike laughed even more. "Really, how did Saffron take that bit of news?" 

Cadence sighed. "Celestia drained the machine, also add this to the book, Elf's cant get brain freeze, or at least not from 10 milkshakes." 

Spike chuckled as he nodded, he looked to Celestia. "I'm glad you like it, right now its arts and crafts time, but we still need to talk about a few things so lets head into the back office." 

Celestia nodded as she muffled a small burp. "Excuse me. But what about you, when do you get to eat?" Asked Celestia. Cadence told her during lunch that Spike didn't eat dinner or breakfast this morning, and she saw him only eat a sandwich, a few bites of fruit salad, and a spoon of soup.

Spike shrugged. "I'm going to eat right now, I'm not artistic, that's more Cadance's area of expertise. Actually, I should get Silvia back into her cage and take her home for the day, so instead of using the back office, lets head to my apartment?"

Celestia nodded. "Ok."