“O-Okay Spike, new plan,” Twilight declared. “Could you please bring me a fresh scroll and a book on foal care?” The baby dragon gave a nod at this request, quickly grabbing a blank scroll for Twilight before he went to search for the book she had asked for.
“Hmmm, hair care, pet care, babysitting…” The dragon recited the books as he ran his claw along the bookshelf. “Ah! Here’s one.” After retrieving the book, Spike read the title of it aloud. “The Basics of Foal Care.” Twilight used her horn to retrieve the book from her dragon assistant, a newfound look of confidence on her face.
“That’s perfect, Spike. I’m going to write a list of supplies that we’re going to need to handle Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.” And with that the purple unicorn cracked open the book and began to read.
“O-Oh,” Spike said. “But what do we do about them in the meantime-ow!” The baby dragon was suddenly cut off as he felt something tug at the scales on his head. Looking up he saw Rainbow Dash flying just above him, a smirk on her face as she giggled down at him. “Hey, what’s the big idea Rainbow Dash?” The purple dragon asked, looking up at the giggling pegasus. Rainbow Dash only responded with a playful babble as she went to grab for the dragon’s head scales once again. Spike immediately put his claws over his head, ducking away from the foal. “Hey! No pulling my scales!” He said, scowling up at Rainbow Dash. Much to the dragon’s dismay, the blue pegasus stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at him, which caused a bit of drool to dribble down her chin. “Oh that’s it. I think you need to go in time out!” Spike said as he tried to grab for the foal. Rainbow Dash’s expression turned to a competitive smirk as she swiftly flew out of Spike’s reach. “Hey!” The dragon yelled, making fruitless jumps to try to grab at the blue foal. After sticking her tongue out at the dragon once more, Rainbow Dash took off through the library, flapping her tiny wings as fast as she could as she flew. She let out a gleeful squeal of joy as she sped around the room in circles, enjoying the feeling of wind rushing through her mane even as a foal. “Come back here!” Spike yelled, as he chased after the pegasus. Rainbow Dash didn’t stop however. She continued to fly around the library, occasionally diving down just so she could zip past Spike and cause him to stumble in his attempt to make another grab for her. “T-Twilight! I could use some help here!” Spike called, still trying to chase after Rainbow Dash.
“Just a second Spike,” Twilight replied, as she finished writing something down on the scroll. She then set her quill down and trotted over to Spike just as he made another failed attempt to grab at the blue pegasus. After helping Spike up, Twilight looked up at the zooming foal.
“She’s just too fast! Even as a foal she’s impossible to catch!” Spike said. Twilight’s ears drooped in horrified dismay as she watched Rainbow Dash race around the room.
“M-Maybe I can use a halting spell on her!” The purple unicorn thought aloud. She then locked her eyes on the blue pegasus and concentrated on her as her horn started to glow. Noticing this, Rainbow Dash slowed down for a split second as her smirk vanished. Spike was easy enough to fool, but the foal knew even she couldn’t compete with Twilight’s magic. In a flash Rainbow Dash sped across the room. And to Twilight and Spike’s horror, she then flew out the library window. “We have to catch her!” Twilight cried.
“I’m on it!” Spike said, running towards the door.
“It think it’d be better if I went after her,” Twilight said. “If I’m able to corner her somehow I’ll be able to cast a halting spell on her.”
“But I-” Spike began.
“I need you to stay here in case she comes back,” the purple unicorn stated, cutting her assistant off. And before Spike could respond, Twilight used her magic to fling the library door open and she trotted after her flying, foalified friend. Spike gave a huffed sigh, sitting down on the first step of the staircase. He was considering walking up to his bed and curling up when suddenly, something pulled him back to focus. He felt something unpleasantly slimy on the tip of his tail
“Ew, what got on my tail?” He asked aloud as he looked back at his tail. To his surprise however, Spike saw that a yellow foal sat one stair above him. She sat on the step, happily gumming on Spike’s tail and covering it with drool. The dragon cringed at this, gently pulling his now slimy tail out of the foal’s mouth. “Aw gross,” he said, before looking back to the pegasus. Fluttershy gave a soft giggle in response before she reached her tiny hooves up to Spike, babbling up at him. “Huh? What do you need?” The dragon asked. The yellow foal babbled more at him, once again waving her front hooves up at him. “You want picked up?” Spike questioned, before picking the tiny pegasus up. Fluttershy gave a drooly coo when the dragon lifted her up, and Spike smiled a bit as the foal fluttered her tiny wings out happily. “At least you’re easy to handle,” the dragon commented, albeit more to himself than to Fluttershy. “You’re a lot better than Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy gave another happy babble at the purple dragon. Spike couldn’t help but smile at this as he held the giggly yellow foal in his arms. “Hmm, you like animals. Maybe you can play with Owlowiscious,” Spike proposed, before looking to see if his avian coworker was awake. However to his dismay the owl sat atop his perch, still asleep. “Figures,” the dragon thought aloud. “He is nocturnal.”
Fluttershy looked up at Spike, babbling up at him. She ended her drooly, incoherent sentence of babbling by sticking her tongue out and blowing a tiny raspberry, which caused her to kick her hooves out and let out a tiny squeal of laughter. Spike couldn’t help but chuckle at this. “You’re much more talkative as a foal,” he commented, eliciting yet another babble from Fluttershy. Spike looked around the library absentmindedly, however he suddenly stood up as he noticed Twilight’s list on her desk. “Hmm, I wonder what Twilight’s written down so far,” Spike said as he walked over to the desk, still holding the foal sized Fluttershy. Standing on his tiptoes to peek over the desk, Spike began to read the list aloud. “Let’s see. Foal food, foal powder, foal wipes, and diapers. Huh, guess she doesn’t have much written down yet.” Fluttershy babbled a bit once more, and Spike felt the foal shift a bit in his arms. It was then that the dragon suddenly noticed something that made his eyes widen a bit. A warm feeling had started to run down the front of him, followed by the faint pitter sound of liquid starting to drip onto the floor. Hesitantly looking at the foal in his arms, Spike’s suspicions were unfortunately confirmed when he saw that Fluttershy’s back hooves were now dripping wet, along with his own chest. “Oh yuck!” The dragon shrieked, quickly holding the dripping pegasus at arm’s length. Fluttershy’s content smile vanished immediately, and she looked back at the dragon with a sorry expression. Spike just sighed, cringing once more as he noticed the yellow puddle on the floor in front of him. “Come on, Fluttershy,” the dragon began, quickly walking to the bathroom with the yellow foal. “A warning would’ve been nice.” Fluttershy whimpered softly, and Spike didn’t immediately notice the tears that began to well up in her turquoise eyes. The dragon stepped into the bathroom, and when he did finally notice Fluttershy’s tears it was far too late. Just as the dragon was about to set her down so he could turn on the bathtub faucet, the winged foal hiccupped as her lip started to quiver. Seeing this, Spike became anxious. “Wait, Fluttershy! Please don’t start crying!” He pleaded, desperately trying to think of something to calm her down. Despite the dragon’s plea, Fluttershy whimpered louder as she kicked her little hooves out in discontent. She hiccupped once more as her little ears drooped back. And then she began to cry. Spike winced at the high pitched wailing, and he turned his head away from the foal as her cries echoed throughout the bathroom. The dragon then sat Fluttershy on the floor as he frantically turned on the tub faucet. Of course the first thing he had to worry about was cleaning the pegasus up. If he was lucky, maybe that would even stop her crying. Spike held his claws to his head as he watched the tub fill with water, trying to shield his ears from Fluttershy’s crying.
Fluttershy sat on the bathroom floor still, kicking out her tiny hooves as she continued to wail loudly. Eventually, Spike turned off the faucet and he quickly picked up the sobbing pegasus, holding her away from him as he carefully lowered her into the water. “T-There!” He said, frantically. “S-See? A nice warm bath!” However to the dragon’s surprise, Fluttershy only squirmed when she was lowered into the water. The foal wailed even louder, kicking her hooves against the water, inadvertently splashing some of it at Spike. “A-Ack! F-Fluttershy please!” The dragon recoiled, however that splash of water made him realize his grave mistake. The water felt ice cold! He must’ve forgotten to check its temperature in his frantic panic. Quickly, Spike lifted the now soaking wet, sobbing foal out of the water and set her on the floor once again. He quickly turned on the faucet once again, this time making sure it was on the hottest setting so that it would warm up the ice cold bath water. He then went to retrieve a towel to dry himself off. Meanwhile Fluttershy only cried louder. Sure she was usually soft spoken, even for a foal. Though with the recent events of having an accident and then being plunged into freezing water, the winged foal was in no mood to be quiet. So instead she just sat on the floor and continued to wail unhappily.
Suddenly, the yellow pegasus’s attention was pulled as something flew into the bathroom. And she watched as a sleepy looking Owlowiscious swooped down and landed in front of her. Fluttershy’s wails slowly quieted as the owl tucked his wings back at his sides. Owlowiscious looked at the sniffling foal with a silent, curious gaze. Fluttershy looked back at him, still whimpering softly. She was still a bit teary eyed, yet surprisingly she had calmed down quite a bit. After a couple seconds the shivering foal babbled softly up at the owl. Owlowiscious tilted his head a bit in return, letting out a soft hoot. Fluttershy let out a tiny giggle at this, a tiny smile appearing on her face. Owlowiscious tilted his head the other way and hooted once again, this time flapping his wings out a bit. The yellow foal let out a tiny squeal of glee at this, softly kicking her front hooves against the floor. No matter what age Fluttershy was, animals always seemed to provide a comforting, and in this case entertaining, presence. Owlowiscious continued to entertain the winged foal as Spike returned to the bathroom, holding a couple of towels. After checking the water temperature, the dragon turned off the faucet. Now the water was just the right temperature, so then Spike carefully picked up the giggling pegasus and lowered her back into the bathtub. Fluttershy babbled up at Spike before she looked over to her newfound avian friend. Owlowiscious gave a small hoot before he flew over to the tub and perched atop the spigot. Spike couldn’t help but get a semi surprised smile, looking at the owl. “Wow, how did you get her to stop crying so easily?” The dragon asked.
“Hoo.” The owl replied, turning his head around backwards so that he faced the dragon. Spike blinked.
“Fluttershy,” he told the owl. “How did you calm Fluttershy down?”
“Hoo.” Spike raised a brow at the owl.
“I just told you who,” he said. However then the dragon got a look of realization as he looked back at Owlowiscious. He chuckled. “Right. I forgot that’s all you say.”