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// Spike (co-op with Twilight) 
// Story: Bathtime for Ponies 
// by Derpsanddinks404 
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       The bathroom door opens with a violet glow of magic as a young Twilight Sparkle trotted in. Behind her is a purple dragon who's being dragged on the ground by magic, his claws dug as far as possible into the wood floor. Twilight has a strained look on her face as she struggled to get the weirdly strong chick. When she managed to cross him over the threshold, she sighed in exhaustion and looked to you, putting on a sheepish smile.

"Eh heh, I can fix your floor after, if you'd like," she offers apologetically.

"You don't have to. Only if you could and it wouldn't be a problem," you tell her, not wanting to further exhaust the young caretaker of the reptile.

"None whatsoever!" she assures you proudly, relieved you weren't mad at Spike.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you think that what just happened seemed oddly familiar. Let's see: abnormal strength, forceful magic, a great desire to not bathe. Yep, I've seen this before.

Spike now lay on his back with his arms crossed. Twilight levitated him and placed him in the tub full of water. She looks to you and smiles.

"Thanks for your help!" she says happily. "It's just been so hard raising him, mostly considering I'm still too young to be a mother. And, there's also the fact that I'm a pony, and he's a dragon."

"It's no problem," you assure her like you do everypony else. "Although, I will come out and admit I've never washed a dragon."

"It's easier than it sounds," explains Twilight. "All you need to do is take this," she holds up a scrubbing brush, "and some scale soap, and scrub like Tartarus!" Twilight gasps and puts her hooves to her mouth in shock and shame. "Please don't tell my mom I said the T word!"

You chuckle a bit to Twilight's surprise. "You're fine by me." Twilight exhales deeply and wipes some sweat off her brow.

Grabbing the brush from Twilight's hoof and thanking her, you take the bottle of scale shampoo Twilight had provided you with and squirt some on the semi-stiff bristles. You then turn to the grumpy purple dragon and begin to scrub his little head. He closes one of his eyes as you make sure to get every part of it. A minute in you're almost done when you notice something fascinating. 

"He's molting!" Twilight exclaims happily when she notices it also. "He's never molted before! Spike, you're growing up!" The young caregiver hugs her year-old pet and future assistant. Spike doesn't react much to the hug, only smiling at his maternal figure's warmth.

You continue to scrub his head for ten more seconds, making sure to scrub a bit harder to clear the dead reptilian skin. Once you're certain that Spike's head is clean, you pour two handfuls of water over his head to clear off the few suds and leftover skin cells.

With his head fully cleaned, you put some more scale shampoo on the brush and begin scrubbing his back, more vigorously than his head. Spike's back had obviously been itching, for as soon as you started scrubbing his head inclined, his eyes closed and his left foot and tail both began shaking like a dog's would. Both you and Twilight giggle at Spike's merriment and relief. Because Spike was so pleased with how hard you washed his back, it took you two and a half minutes, mostly because you wanted to help the poor little guy.

Continuing from his back, you turn him over and begin to scrub his belly. This tickles the dragon chick, and he giggles cutely, causing both Twilight and you to yet again giggle. His stomach only takes about a minute, the entirety of which Spike weirdly enjoyed, putting on a smile afterwards. 

"I think he likes you!" Twilight comments, also smiling.

"I do too," you reply, smiling to both.

Now that the purple chick was nearly done, you squirt one last bit of scale shampoo on the brush and begin gently cleaning his tail. Completely oblivious to how this was to be done, Spike wagged his tail while you tried to chase it and clean it. Twilight asks him multiple times to stop, but he never listens. In the end, Twilight magically holds his stump in place while you quickly get it over so Twilight wouldn't lose too much energy (she was still kinda young). With your efforts, it only takes half a minute and one irritated Spike to clean off the reptile's tail.

Bathtime finally done, you pull the tub's plug and Spike watches the water start to drain. Twilight lifts her tiny pet from the tub with a purple glow of magic and places him on the ground. You grab the towel behind you and dry off the baby boy in front of you. He giggles again, clearly finding that his tummy was very ticklish. You dry his belly a bit more to increase his giggles, which do so to the point where he hiccups.

Now, hiccups from a foal or human child are completely harmless. Spike, on the other hoof, was a dragon, and therefor hiccuped fire. This wouldn't have been so bad either, minus the fact that Twilight was watching him from the front. Twilight jumps a bit at the flames and starts to panic when her lavender mane caught on fire!

You reflexively jump over to the quarter-full draining tub and grab a handful of water. You then quickly throw the water towards Twilight's head to extinguish the flames. Your attempts are successful, leaving behind nothing but a wet, unamused purple filly. Bemused, she frowns to you and thanks you half-sarcastically. You sheepishly smile and tell her, "No problem!"

Spike looks to Twilight guiltily. Twilight notices this and smiles, pulling him in closer. "You're okay, little guy!" she convinces him. "Accidents happen all the time." Spike continues to look at her, still with (lesser) guilt.

You grab the towel again and take Spike from the pony's hooves. Finishing up his drying stage takes only a minute before the dragon is sparkly clean- literally! Twilight looks at your amazed face and explains. "Dragons have naturally shiny scales for the first two years. That's why no mature dragons have shiny scales."

"Oh," you say, now knowing something new about dragons. 

Twilight thanks you endlessly and lifts Spike up on her back. She strolls out the door and brings Spike to bed, claiming it was time for his nap. You could hear from outside a tiny grumble followed by a poorly hidden yawn. You laugh at baby Spike and his inability to cease amazing you.