//------------------------------//
// Little Macintosh 
// Story: Bathtime for Ponies 
// by Derpsanddinks404 
//------------------------------//

       An obedient Little Macintosh sits quietly at your side while you finish the tub. You had told him earlier he could play while you finished the water, but he had disregarded your offer and decided to keep you company. Nevertheless, it was nice to see somepony who actually wanted to participate instead of act like a brat.

When the tub was three-quarters full, you turn the faucet knobs off and turn to the patient farmer colt to your side. "You ready?" you ask. Little Mac nods in confirmation, and in your head you could just hear his signature "Eeyup".

You reach down to pick up the big-for-his-size colt with utter failure. Little Macintosh's name, you find out, never quite fit him when he was young, for each time you wrapped your arms around his waist to lift him, you strained every muscle in your arms. You eventually quit your useless attempts and stare back at the expressionless earth colt. "Well, we sure are at a problem here, huh?" you sigh to the unspoken foal, who keeps his gaze as if in order to agree.

Macintosh (you decide to drop the "Little") turns towards the tub and contemplate his next move. Then, with all force possible in his hind legs, he jumps up and onto the rim of the tub, almost getting in. He then, to your amazement, musters the upper-hoof strength to pull his not-so-little body over the side and into the water, where he makes a thud and splash. Some lukewarm water splashes onto you, but you rub most of it off, remembering other times when your shirt had gotten wetter.

Satisfied with the clever colt's problem-solving skills, you begin the first step of his bath. Grabbing a bottle of apple-scented shampoo, you squirt some of the hair soap into your opposite palm. Then you place your soapy hand on Macintosh's orange mane and begin to lather it through. This process takes you longer than you thought it would, for even though the mane was short, it was messy and dirty, due to past hours spent in the fields of Sweet Apple Acres playing. 

"Wow, you're a dirty little pony, aren't you?" you ask jokingly. Macintosh looks up to you with a sheepish grin. You laugh at the little colt's innocence, causing him to emit a single cute giggle.

The sunset orange mane is finally finished cleaning after a minute, turning the suds from a dull grey to its normal color. You reach your hands into the water and lift up a fair amount in two cupped palms. Then you bring the water over Macintosh's red head and release it, sending the liquid through his hair and back to its brethren below. You continue this process, also known as rinsing, for four more cycles before the short orange hair is fully suds-free.

With the first half done, you have the red colt lift his flank so you could continue whilst you squirt another palmful of shampoo into your hand. You repeat your previous step of lathering on the little crop of hair known as Macintosh's tail. The tail, like its brother, is dirty and messy, and too takes longer than you expected. Forty seconds of lathering later, the tail is ready to be rinsed.

Grabbing another two-hands full of bath water, you begin the last step of rinsing. Pouring the water over the tail, you fake only three cycles, the shortest it has ever taken you (then again, he did have the shortest tail you'd ever seen on a pony. You figure this to be due to the fact that he was a natural-born worker, and that longer tails would get in the way). You feel a little glad that the colt hadn't taken long to clean.

Because he had been so cooperative, you reach behind you and produce a little rubber duck for Macintosh to play with. You place it in the water, saying, "There ya go." Macintosh stares blankly at the toy, and then at you, and back to the toy, and so on. You sigh at the failed attempt to amuse the colt and turn to the door to go and find another toy for him to play with.

You search through the toy chest in Macintosh's room for an alternative. After a minute of searching, you find nothing that looks good enough to play with while in the bath. Giving up, you leave the sky blue room and return to the bathroom, where from outside the door you could hear a few faint splashing sounds.

When you enter the bathroom, you are somewhat surprised at what you see. Macintosh, who is normally quiet and keeps to himself, is playing with the rubber duck he had moments before turned down. You smile at the cuteness, even going so far as to say, "Aww." Macintosh hears you with a startle and turns his head towards you. He quickly shoves the duck behind his back and pretends to clear his throat. Even though he was naturally red, you could see he was blushing.

Even after a moment's time of trying to convince him that play was okay, Macintosh still doesn't return to his past playtime. You give up trying to get him to act cute again and unplug the bath tub. You tell Macintosh that the bath was over, and he nods in understanding. Jumping with his front hooves over the edge, the red colt is able to make it over the rim and onto the ground, where he lands front-chest-first onto the ground with a thud. He stands up and shakes his head, showing he was all right. This pleases you, seeing as how you didn't want to bandage up a big colt like Macintosh right at the moment.

Grabbing the towel next to you, you bring it to Macintosh's mane and start to dry it. After the short orange hair is dry, you move on to his torso and hooves, and then his super short tail. When he is all dry, you put the towel away and kneel down to the colt.

Rubbing your hair through his messy yet clean mane, you tell him, "You can go now, Mac." Macintosh obeys and exits the bathroom to continue his daily activities. You clean up a few more things and follow the red foal to see what he was doing.





Later on, you're relaxing in the nice Equestrian sun that Celestia had raised that day, when all of a sudden you hear a crashing sound that scares the living Tartarus out of you. Jumping up out of your chair to see what had caused the ruckus, you find a small, surprised Macintosh standing yards away with a tree stump at his rear and a fallen apple tree behind that...