//------------------------------//
// Photo Finish 
// Story: Bathtime for Ponies Part 2 
// by Starry Eyed 
//------------------------------//

	You finish preparing the bath for the night. You don’t bother calling out for the young Photo Finish, because you already know exactly where she is, and set out to get her before the water by the time the water has cooled enough for the upcoming bath.

You make your way down the halls of her parent’s surprisingly ordinary house. Ordinary might be the wrong word for it, more like… drab. You really expected her home to be more… just more. There really was no magics, ahem, excuse the phrase; there really was no glamor to the place at all. It was still rather warm and inviting, but you half expected Photo Finish’s childhood home to be more… whacky.

Your thoughts are interrupted by the fact you are now standing outside sewing room. You realize you shouldn’t think that way anyway, and open the door to the room. You open the door to find little Photo sitting next to a stack of patch clothes that her mother used for sewing.

At this point, Photo herself is no more than a foal. As such is not allowed to sew because she could hurt herself. Photo has still found a way to make things though. She is tying a single spool of red ribbon into various bows and things. Once she makes one, she bites off the ribbon long enough to tie another one. Once her little ribbons are made, she deposits them in a little basket. The cutest part of this process is that she is actually so small; she is in the basket she puts the bows in.

She notices you approach, and makes a happy foal-like cooing sound. This is already into the second week of you taking care of her, so you know her well enough to know she’s happy. Still, even when she was this young, that everlasting poker face of hers made it hard to tell her emotions apart. 

But despite the changes in her mood being subtle, they were noticeable if you paid attention, and her bright pink eyes always told how she really felt. “Those are some beautiful ribbons Photo. You can finish making them later, but it’s bath time.” Photo seemed to generally understand what you were saying, but decided to keep working anyway. You sigh, but you realize that you have a great advantage. “Fine, keep working.” You pick up the entire basket and carry it whole set-up to the bathroom.

About halfway to your destination, you slow your pace to admire the cuteness. You are carrying a baby pony, in a basket, full of little red ribbon bows, which she is making with a song in her heart. DAWW! Once inside, you set the basket on the bathroom sink before going back to close the door. You now take the light blue pony out of her little basket and set her in the tub.

Rather than hating or loving the bath, Photo’s general attitude is something along the lines of, “let’s just do this so we can go back to whatever we want to do.”

You get out a special shampoo that the boss gave you. This particular shampoo is just in a perfectly white bottle with no labels, due to it being ‘homemade’ so to speak. The boss told you that it would have a perfectly safe whitening effect on her naturally white hair. You pour the shampoo into your hand and begin massaging it into her little mane. This goes on only for about fifteen seconds due to her relatively short mane length, even for a foal.

Though her expression appears blank, her eyes tell you that she is having fun. You smile and scoop up a handful of water to pour over her mane. She knows the drill by now, and tilts her head back to let the water wash over her. Seven rinses later you are sure her mane is completely suds free.

You start to ask her to lift her tail for you, but you’ve already done this several times, and she already has. You thank her to give her some positive feedback, and get out more of your white shampoo. Because her tail is longer it takes longer to scrub. Much longer, her tail is very fluffy and thick, despite being straight. Scrubbing even a very small patch of it took some time. In all, it takes you almost a minute to scrub and that only because you are good at this by now.

Once it is time to rinse, you don’t have any time to consider scooping up more water to do so. Photo has sat down and is swishing her tail around in the water. Such has proved to be the fastest way of doing things in previous baths. 	
Unfortunately, Photo wants to finish this bath a little too fast, and her swishing splashes water on your shirt. Photo realizes this only after she already finished washing her tail. A hoof quickly shoots up to cover her mouth, clearly having not meant to do that.

Photo and you exchange looks, and have a complete conversation with looks alone. It goes a little something like this: 
“(sigh) Photo…”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.” 
“It’s ok, just be more careful.”
“I will.”
“Then don’t worry anymore, it’s fine.”
“(Laughter)”

With the bath having come to an end, you give Photo the toys to play with. She smiles, but you know it’s an elaborate ruse. “You don’t have to play if you don’t want to Photo. I know you would rather make ribbons.” Photo sighs in relief, and silently wishes she had some… she doesn’t know, some goggles or something to find her eyes and make her poker face complete.

You unplug the tub and pick little Photo out of the bath and set her on the mat. After only twenty seconds she is dry and ready to go. She wordlessly thanks you and starts toward the door. Before she gets far though, you set her basket down next to her, “Want a ride?” Her poker face melts into a complete smile as she pounces into the basket so softly only the rustling of ribbons resonates. You carry her back to where you found her and go to change your shirt to one that isn’t soaked in bathwater. When you start to change your shirt you notice that on the way back, she tied one of the ribbons through the cufflinks of this work-shirt. 

You carefully untie the ribbon as if it was as delicate as a soap bubble. She wanted to make you look nice, and you have to admit, it did feel a little magical.