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// 02. Fluttershy 
// Story: You's Bed And Bath For Ponies 
// by Listie The Scribe Maid 
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this chapter was brought to you in part by the
CUTE DREAM THEATRE, DEPT.

One of the things I was hoping I could  get good at quickly was making these baths. I mean, putting the foals to bed was probably the easiest part of my job. But I just can't seem to get this bath thing right. It's better then the last one at least. Didn't have to throw in that much dry ice. Anyways, I might as well go and get my most recent customer: Fluttershy, the adorable little yellow ball of Nazi. Sorry, I mean Hammerskin.

"Hey, Fluttershy, you're bath's ready, get your whispery butt in here!" I called to her. No reply. Well, I was done waiting. Time to go find her. The last time I saw her was the faux-living room I had made, but, when I checked there, she was missing. I groaned at that and searched around a little more, starting with the freezer. Don't ask why!

Eventually, I found her in my bedroom under my bed. I don't think she realized that there's a perfectly good she could hide under one room over. Anyways, when I found her, she was shaking quite violently. She looked more like a blur at that point.

"C'mon, Fluttershy, you need to take a bath, come out," I said, trying to sound all sympathetic and all "your-not-in-trouble-y". "Look, I may seem off, but I was born with this coat colour. It just seems like I'm completely naked, but I'm not."

It didn't seem like Fluttershy fully bought it, but she did come out and I was able to get her in the bath... After undressing her, of course. Yeah, she was wearing full on Nazi-garb. And I had to take it off. Um...

"Y'know, this wouldn't be awkward if you weren't wearing this," I told Fluttershy. I don't think she understood, but I was more or less talking to myself. That's what happens when you surround yourself with foals. The only pony who talks is yourself.

Moving on, I checked to see if it needed more dry ice (it didn't) and placed her in. Initially, she was pretty shocked by the temperature, but she got used to it eventually. I tried not to look at her too long 'cause, well, even though we're always naked, if somepony wears something for a long enough time, it becomes weird seeing them without it on.

When I saw that she seemed pretty OK with the water, I decided that the reader needed some cute imagery, so I gave the yellow pegaus a rubber duck. She took it happily and instantly started treating it like it was a real animal. So I'm not the only crazy one. Unfortunately, I guess, she happened to look at me the moment I decided to take a peek at her.

"Um... You can go on," I reassured her. In all seriousness, I kind of didn't want her to stop. But the mood was dead apparently, as she shoved the duck aside.

That's when I decided to start washing her. And let me just say this up front, Fluttershy is DAMN soft. It's pretty crazy how stoft this bucker is. Like... Wow.

Sadly, I was being kinda careless with my washing this time, 'cause I got soap in her eyes. Naturally, it stung and she retreated from me, tears welling up.

"It was a mistake!" I said defensively. "Look, I didn't mean to get soap all up in your eyes."

Like before, I put a little effort into my sorry face, but Fluttershy eventually kind of forgave me and let me continue on.

Anyways, as I was saying, SOFT MOTHER-BUCKER. But then there were the wings.

I've never washed wings before this point and I knew I would be coming to this. The thing is, you gotta treat 'em like they're genitals and that's really awkward. Even more then that thing I mentioned above with the clothes. So, anywho, I grabbed her wings and asked her to keep 'em held up because I sure as hay wasn't doing it. She complied and I just realized that I had no idea what to use: Body wash or shampoo. Well... It's not covered in hair like the rest of her, but feathers are kind of like fur... I ended up using body wash I don't know why.

Of course, Fluttershy shivered at the cool touch. It was cool. As ICE. Anywho, after I was done washing, I dumped water on it. But it didn't really look washed out, so I did it again. And again. And again. After an hour, I think I had dumped the entire tub of water on her. Naturally, I did the other wing, but I only did ten rounds of water dumping. Which isn't easy to do with hooves, mind you, so be impressed.

Moving on, I did her tail afterwards, which is pretty much how it went with Pinkie, just saner. Another difference, I guess, was that I didn't pull as much as I did with Pinkie and it took about 15 rounds of water dumping to get the tail all done. So, um, ehh. I gotta get used to it, I guess.

I went to pull the plug, but Fluttershy did it for me.

"Hey!" I cried when she unplugged it. Fluttershy looked a little sorry, but I said, "Don't worry about it too much... It ain't that important. Kinda helpful, I guess."

OK. Anyways, I picked Fluttershy out of the tub and dry her all down. You could even hear her voice shaking. I did her body first, followed by her abdomen (I found that word in the dictionary and thought it sounded smrt), cauda and schwanz (the latter two proves I know how to use Google Translate). Once she was dried off completely, I let her go off to do whatever, probably to play with that cat I didn't have until now.

As it should seem, I was going to put the towel in the dirty clothes basket, but I was interrupted by seeing Fluttershy talking to said cat. The cat looked like it was freaked out of his mind. I just... Just...

"DAMN CUTEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!" I exclaimed. "I DAMN LOVE YOU, FLUTTERSHY!... Not in the unfunny paedophile gay way, but in the normal way."

LATER

Right when I was in the middle of listening to Octavarium (I like Dream Theatre, OK?), I realized it was about time Fluttershy went to bed. Hopefully, it would be a lot less chaotic then Pinkie. But first I had to make the bed, since it gotten a little messed up since the last time I watched a foal. Y'know, almost a hundred days ago. So shut the CD off, went into the room where it would be and made the bed, putting on the linen and comforter and all that stuff. I guess it looked OK, so I called to my little guest for the night.

"Yo, Flutters, yo bed is ready!" I exclaimed. "Well, it depends on where you are, but where I am, it's your bed time! Well... I don't what your bed bedtime is, b-but-"

Then Fluttershy got out from under the bed, tired of me calling her, I guess. That's also where I keep all my Dream Theatre and Iron Maiden albums. Why? All my Cadence Priest albums are there! Anywho, I took her out from under there, checked to see if my albums were all OK (Fear Of The Dark was a little out of place) and placed Fluttershy where she belonged. On the bed. I mean, where else would I put her? Speaking of things being in places, there was this tan teddy bear that Fluttershy immediately grabbed.

"Huh... Well, I guess you can have that," I muttered, not really knowing why that was there in the first place. I certainly didn't put it there. But whatever.

Fluttershy seemed to be half-embarrassed or something, muttering to the bear. I raised an eyebrow and Fluttershy got even more embarrassed, pulling the sheets up over her head. Eh, whatever. I then had a sudden pang of overriding guilt. It even hurt a little. So I decided to make it up to her in some way or another. Why not a bedtime story? I knew I'd be doing this for every pong I'd watch, so might as well get this over with.

"Hey, you want a story?" I asked, trying to sound sorry. "I-I got this book called Carnival Of The Animals, Part 2. It's by Weird Polka!"

Well, he didn't make it. It's actually from this album called Colgate And The Wolf, which I've never heard. But I did take the poems from the second song, "Carnival Of The Animals, Part 2" and added some nice pictures to them. Looks like Rigg Pencil's stuff. I'm very happy with the final results.

Anyways, I started to read: "This is a new composition which features, a random assortment of all living creatures. You'll find that it's not quite exactly the same, as the one by Camille Saint what's-his-name..."

Yeah, I don't know who Camille isn't either. Anywho, I went on reading it, peeking at Fluttershy every now and then, who at one point pull back the covers enough that she could see, but still be kinda hidden, sorta. I knew she wanted to look at it and, near the end, I caved in.

"The poodle's a slimy carnivorous beast," I continued, finally letting Fluttershy look at the book, "in pastures you might find it grazing. It's fangs measure twenty three inches at least, it's antlers are simply amazing. Sometimes it will bury its head in the sand, it's our main source of pork, ham, and bacon. But, then again, on the other hand, I could be completely mistaken."

Fluttershy seemed confused and a little disgusted by what I had drawn for that. Now that I think of it, the picture was too The Final Frontier-horrifying-alien. Maybe I should've gone for more of a Powerslave look. Egyptian poodles would've been nice.

"...Poor Wendy's feeling in the dumps," I finally finished, "she's worn her fingers down to stumps. And so, farewell, this story's through, now go find something else to do."

Shutting the book, I noted that Fluttershy was asleep and seemed a little content. I guess I was, too. So I put the book on the shelf and went out, shutting off the light. I heard a yelp from behind me and turned the light back on. I thought, Oh, what the buck now?!, went over to Fluttershy, pulled back the covers and saw her looking absolutely TERRIFIED. Almost on the verge of tears, clutching that bear enough to crush it into dust.

"Hey, hey, look, this isn't like Fear Of The Dark," I whispered to Fluttershy. I mean, really, I've messed up with Fluttershy so much today. I hope this isn't a recurring theme. "Nothing's gonna hurt you. If something was going to, it would've gone for you as soon as the light went out. But it didn't. Or maybe it almost got to you, but I turned the light on at the last second. But that couldn't have happened. And you've got a bear here for you!"

Fluttershy was a little reassured, let go of the bear and latched onto one of my front legs. That slightly annoyed me, but I just wanted her to go to sleep and I guess the only way to do that was to comfort her to that. So I stroked her mane a little, whilst plugging a night light into a near by wall socket. She was completely stupefied by it. I tried to explain what it was, but she really didn't get it. Whatever. Anyways, I picked her up and made an effort to rock her to sleep. After about the time it takes for me to listen to "Octaviarium", she finally managed to nod off. So I put her into bed and went off, turning off the light, the night light still illuminating the room.

I don't think Fluttershy wasn't all that happy when I started blasting Rust In Peace.