This would be one of the most adorable things you had ever seen if you weren’t the one who would have to clean up the mess later. Oh who cares? It’s cute anyway. Berry Punch’s parents owned a large old fashion grape press, similar to the one the Apple family used to make apple juice (not the cider press). Little Berry was pouncing up and down on the grapes in the press, trying to make her very first batch of grape juice.
She would treat the task no different than playing on a trampoline most of the time, but would occasionally see spot, crouch down, and pounce. The resulting impact had no significant force at all, but made her overjoyed at the thought of accomplishing something. She would then resume bouncing around, just having fun.
You might have wondered why the ponies didn’t just use more modern methods to press their grapes, but if they did you wouldn’t get to see this incredibly cute attempt to make some grape juice. After several minutes of letting her try, you take her out and set her beside you. You check to see how much juice has been produced. It’s not even four glasses worth, the press should produce at least over a dozen gallons if a professional was present, but for a ten pound foal who never tried before, it was pretty good.
You congratulate her on her first try, to which she giggles. She starts to go back inside now, but you pick her up. She is covered in grape juice, and if grape juice stains pony fur half as easy as the carpet that you had to clean the other day, you want to wash her immediately. You take her inside and to the tub, which you haven’t even started to fill, since you’ve had to watch her for the last significant while.
You set her down on the mat and pour some bubblebath into the tub right before turning on the water. Berry can’t talk yet, but the little disapproving grunt she gives you communicates her not wanting another bath perfectly. “Yes I know this is your second bath in an hour but you need one. The first bath was to get you perfectly clean before you could press the grapes. But now you need another to get the juice out of your mane and coat.” Berry Punch gives you a stern look, but due to being a foal, it is adorable rather than intimidating.
As you wait for the bath to finish filling up, you put her on the rim of the tub, careful to hold her so she doesn’t fall in or off into the floor. Once you both agree on an acceptable water temperature and depth, she hops into the tub without warning. Luckily for you, you learned to stop wearing clothes that you didn’t want to get soaked early in this job.
According to your boss, the best way to get grape juice stains out is with cold water and detergent, and most importantly to act fast, but gentle. You absolutely cannot bathe anypony in cold water, so you’re really hoping that detergent makes a good grape juice remover.
Since her belly and hooves are the most stained you start with them. You use the detergent that the boss and Berry’s parents assured you is safe for bathing ponies with, and begin using your brush to scrub the stains (which are the same color as her mane). Unfortunately, her tummy is ticklish, and scrubbing it with the cool detergent causes uncontrollably tickle induced laughter to ensue.
After several minutes of scrubbing have passed fruitlessly (pun intended) you start to get seriously worried that, and you can’t help the cliché: THAT STAIN WILL NEVER COME OUT! You are really panicking until you remember that her parents, as well as all grape growing ponies, have been doing this for generations. If this was a serious problem, someone would have told you. Right? You pretend you’re confident in your reasoning, and resume scrubbing.
You eventually come to a point where you concede that some of the stain just isn’t coming out right now, and call it a day. Poor Berry Punch is relieved that you gave up the ticklish task, and sighs in gratitude at your judgment.
Her hair should be clean due to the bath an hour earlier, but since the grape juice is the same color as her mane, you can’t take any chances. You had used grape flavored shampoo in the earlier bath, but realized that using something grape scented to get grape juice out, was probably not a good idea. Hence, you use the detergent as a shampoo, scrubbing it into her mane. You can’t really tell what if any parts of her mane need this scrub, so you continue for the standard half a minute.
With her mane ready for rinsing, you scoop up a handful of water and pour it over her mane. Detergent takes slightly longer to rinse out than shampoo, so it’s a whole twenty rinses before you’re sure her mane is clean.
You sweetly ask her to lift her tail now. Berry complies, mostly because she is ready for the bath to end. Berry’s tail is long and very fluffy, so it takes over half a minute to lather. Her tail’s natural fluffiness makes it even harder to rinse, and it takes you a record setting thirty rinses to make it totally clean! To be fair, it wouldn’t have been that much if you were using shampoo instead of detergent.
You would give her some toys, but you know how much she wants the bath to end, and she got to play earlier anyway. She however is playing without any toys. The detergent that was rinsed out of her mane and tail has mixed with the bath water, and the tub is overflowing with bubbles. Berry is bouncing around in the tub, popping bubbles left and right. You quickly take her out of the tub and place her on the mat before she splashes all the water on you.
You unplug the tub and dry her off, which takes less than twenty seconds. A lone bubble floats down and lands on her nose. She stares at it intensely, marveling at its beauty. You smile at the sight, and decide to tell her about a bath with a lot, LOT more bubbles later.
You take her back to the kitchen where her parents have just gotten in from their work. They are also covered in grape juice, but assure you that while pesky, earth ponies have mastered the art of getting it cleaned off, eventually.
You sigh in relief, and show them the grape juice their daughter made. They are very proud of her, and pour it evenly into four glasses, one for each of them, one for her, and one for you. You realize how profound it is to be included in this, and are secretly glad you cleaned her really, REALLY well before you let her press it.
Berry’s mom then get out a box of Berry’s favorite fruit, which is of course: Strawberries. You are somewhat shocked at this reveal, but then again, it would be on her cutie mark someday, and you were already tired of grapes after being here one day. It made sense that grapes didn’t have to be her favorite.
Berry’s mom mixes some strawberries into the grape juice, and you all celebrate with strawberry-grape juice. And you are very careful not to spill any of this stuff of anything. Tasty as it is, grape is the archenemy of the cleaning profession.