//------------------------------// // Cheerilee // Story: Bathtime for Ponies Part 2 // by Starry Eyed //------------------------------// You sit with Cheerilee in the parlor of her parent’s house. Cheerilee is bright eyed and curious, so she would normally want to be outside exploring, but it’s raining today, so you have to stay inside. Cheerilee is still very young, but thanks to being very curious and a very good listener, she can already talk a little. “Sitter, why does it rain?” You think about your answer carefully, making sure not to confuse Equestria’s physics with earth’s accidentally. “Well dear, the pegasus bring us rain, so… I’m really not sure about the whole process. I know lots of pegasus that I could call though.” “But why does it rain sitter?” You are impressed by how perfect her enunciation is, but her adorable baby talk accent still makes it cute. “Oh, well, the plants need water. If it didn’t rain, the flowers and trees wouldn’t grow.” Cheerilee laughs, “I wike flow-ow-ers sitter!” You check your phone for the time and find that it’s later than you thought, “The trees aren’t the only thing that need a bath right now.” Cheerilee looks disappointed, and you hate to leave it like that, “You can color until bath time if you want Cheerilee.” This seems to boost her spirits, and you make your way upstairs to ready the bath. About five minutes later, you have the bath, towels, and travel kit all ready. You begin to make your way downstairs, noticing that you can hear the pitter patter of raindrops on the roof. Come to think of it, was it a good idea to wash her in the middle of a storm? You check the pegasus weather forecast for today, and see that no lightning is planned this week. Knowing that it is absolutely safe, you only double check two more times before you go down to get Cheerilee. When you get downstairs, you see that you never should have suggested coloring to such an imaginative mind. Cheerilee has somehow managed to get paint on her everything, but on the bright side has several wonderful drawings done, and there was only about a pint of paint in the carpet for you to clean later. You decide to scold her, but then she walks over to you and shows you her pictures, “Look sitter, is a flow-ow-er, see?” Operation scold Cheerilee failed completely. You sigh; it’s all part of being a foalsitter. You pick Cheerilee up and carry her up to the tub. You go to close the door and notice that there is now pink and yellow paint on your shirt. You hear curious little sounds coming from the tub, and turn to see that Cheerilee’s paint has turned the bubbles different colors, and she is clapping at the amazing rainbow of bubbles flying around her. You go over and take your seat on the mat, ready to begin the bath. You ready the shampoo, and pour some into your hand. You begin scrubbing it into Cheerilee’s pink and magenta mane. Since her mane is about medium in length, it takes about thirty seconds to finish scrubbing it thoroughly. She notices that you are smiling at the sight of her mane, and wants to look at it personally. What follows is the cutest display of a filly not realizing that she can’t see the top of her own head no matter how many times she turns around in the tub, EVER. After scooting in two complete circles, she just gives up, and wonders why you are laughing. It is now time to rinse, so you scoop up a section of water without paint and slowly pour it over her little mane. It only takes ten rinses to become completely clean, but that takes normal than longer since you have to scoop non-painted water. “How did you get THAT MUCH PAINT on you Cheerilee?” You can’t help but ask. “Makin a card.” She responds with no more detail than that. You are curious, but don’t pursue the question. You now ask her sweetly to raise her tail for you, which she does. You had never notice what a long and full tail she had, but then, you had never had to wash it either. Because her tail is really fluffy, it takes a whole minute before it becomes sudsy. She turns her head back to see her tail, and seeing that she CAN see it, she points a hoof at it with a triumphant, “AH-HA!” Glad she can see what it looks like; she now burst into giggles at the sight of her large bubbly tail. This causes you to giggle at the sight of her giggling, which makes her laugh. You both end up laughing heartily. But she still needs to be cleaned, so you scoop up some water and pour it over her tail. About fifteen rinses later, her tail is clean. Normally this would be the end of the bath, but apparently, she was sitting (like a pony, belly down) on her paint when she was drawing, so her tummy was now a rainbow of paint. You get out your brush, ready to scrub. You apply some soap to the brush, and begin scrubbing off the paint. Apparently Cheerilee’s tummy is ticklish. She starts laughing outright, laughing which, due to her being a foal, sounds almost like a cooing sound. This adorableness lasts about thirty seconds, longer than it normally would have been, because she fidgets around. Finally the bath is over, so you pick her up and set her on the mat. You dry her with a nice soft towel for about a minute until she is completely dry. Normally you would let her go play while you cleaned, but you don’t want her to just get into the paint again. You take her downstairs, and tell her not get into the paints again before setting her in a chair. You go over to pick up the pictures and paints, you would deal with the paint stain later. Suddenly you pick up a card shaped picture she drew, dripping with paint. It’s flowery and colorful and was clearly made by a foal, but it takes your breath away. “Thank You Sitter” is written across the top, with a stick-figure version of you in the middle. “Do ya like it?” You hear from the foal in the chair on the other side of the messy room. “Yes, yes I love it dear.”