“Why, you conniving little b—” Golden Harvest clamped her hoof over her mouth.
“Moooom! Goldie said a bad word!”
“I did not!”
Noi gave her a serious look. “You should wash your mouth out with soap, 'cause you said a bad word.”
Golden Harvest leaned close to her little sister, until their muzzles were almost touching. “I. Did. Not. Say. A. Bad. Word.”
“You thought it. You should wash your brain out with soap.” Noi rubbed her hoof across Golden Harvest's breast, leaving another streak of mud. “I'm a dirt monster!”
“Go!” Golden Harvest stepped back out of hoof range. “Get in the tub!”
“Not unless you come with me,” Noi pouted. “I don't wanna be up there all by myself. I could get drownded.”
“When I was your age, I wasn't as stubborn about taking baths.” Golden Harvest gave Noi a push.
“Were, too.” Noi wiped her hooves off on the mat before starting up the stairs. “Carrot told me he used to have to drag you upstairs and wash you when Mom and Dad left and he had to foalsit you, 'cause you always got yourself all dirty.”
Her cheeks reddened. “That was then. I'm not a little filly anymore” She gave Noi a gentle push up the stairs, then glanced down at the streaks of mud on her coat. A damp rag would wipe them off, and she'd be clean enough. Noi's coat was going to take a lot more work.
“Get in the bathroom.” Golden Harvest narrowed her eyes—Noi was hovering at the door, glancing down the hallway as if she were preparing to bolt.
“Fine.” Noi lowered her ears, and shoved the door open with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. “I'm hungry. Can't I eat first?”
“No. I'm hungry, too, and I can't eat until you're clean.” She followed her sister into the bathroom and pushed the door mostly shut. “Get in.”
“I don't wanna get in until there's water in the tub,” Noi said, giving the bathtub a sideways look. “It's too cold otherwise, and there aren't enough bubbles.” She started to move across the room, towards the door. “Where's my duck? I can't take a bath without my rubber duck.”
“You're not going to take a bath,” Golden Harvest said.
“I'm not?” Noi gave her a hopeful look.
“You're going to take a shower.”
“But . . . Mom says showers are for big ponies.”
“I think you're big enough—don't you?”
Noi glanced warily at the bathtub, the shower head, and her big sister. “Really?”
“I'll be with you. You'll be fine.” Golden Harvest pushed on her sister's rump. “Go on, get in. You can stay at the back at first.”
Noi climbed into the tub, looking up at the shower head as if it were full of snakes. Golden Harvest followed her in, pulled the curtain shut, and turned on the water, waiting until it got to a comfortable temperature before closing the valve on the faucet. She closed her eyes and stuck her head under the warm spray, sighing happily even as she heard her sister's hooves skittering in the tub.
“Come on up. The water's nice.”
“I don't like it,” Noi said. “It's too splashy.”
“It's just like rain, but warmer. You like rain, don't you?”
“I like rain because rain makes the crops grow and if the crops didn't grow we wouldn't have any food to eat.” Noi huddled against her hind leg. “But this isn't rain, and I'm not a crop.”
Golden Harvest chuckled. “It's so much better than rain. Go ahead, stick a hoof in.” She turned to face her little sister, and watched in amusement as Noi shut her eyes tightly and reached out with a hoof, jerking back when the water touched it before bravely reaching forward again.
“See, that isn't so bad.”
“It feels weird.” Noi pulled her hoof back and stood on all fours again, just out of range of the water.
“But not bad, right?”
Noi shook her head, and reached out with her other hoof. This time, she kept her eyes open and watched as the water washed the dirt out of her coat. “It's kind of like rinsing the dishes . . . do the dishes think the water feels funny?”
“Dishes can't feel.”
“I knew that.” Noi slid a little closer to the water, letting it wash up to her knee.
“If you get your mane wet, I'll soap it for you,” Golden Harvest offered. “Close your eyes and just step forward.”
Noi hesitated, then scrunched her eyes shut and moved into the water. Golden Harvest grinned as the filly's natural bravery got the better of her, and she began actually enjoying the shower, moving around and letting the drumming water run over her back. She even turned around to get her tail, flicking it back and forth a few times before she was satisfied at how wet it was. Then she moved out of the water, and looked up at Golden Harvest.
“Soap me,” she demanded.
“Say please.” Golden Harvest taunted her with a bottle of lavender mane and coat shampoo—her own personal soap which Noi was never ever to use.
“Pretty please?”
“That's a good girl.” Golden Harvest worked the soap into her mane, tail, and coat, ignoring Noi's occasional squirming. Once she'd gotten a good lather, she pushed her sister forward again. “Now rinse it out.”
While Noi did, Golden Harvest scrubbed herself, sitting down in the tub to shampoo her mane. Noi, who was now mostly rinsed off, decided to help, gently scrubbing through her big sister's mane.
She moved to the back of the shower while Golden Harvest rinsed herself off, then looked down at her dirty belly. “Hey, Sis, how do I clean my tummy? The water won't reach.”
“You have to stand on your hind hooves,” Golden Harvest explained.
“I'll fall down!”
“I'll hold you.” She guided her sister into position. “You need to be right here, and then stand up.”
Once again, Noi squeezed her eyes shut, waiting until she felt Golden Harvest's hooves lightly touching her back, before nervously getting to her hind legs. “Feels funny,” she muttered, cracking an eye open to watch as the warm water rinsed the dirt off her belly.
“Now take a step back,” Golden Harvest instructed. “I've got you. Put some soap on your tummy, and rub it in. When you've got a good lather, step forward again and wash it out.”
Noi nodded, and squeezed some soap onto her left hoof, quickly put it against her stomach, and began rubbing it around, making sure she got everything. Once she was satisfied, she stepped forward again, Golden Harvest's sure hooves firmly gripping around her barrel. She thrust her chest into the water, and bravely took a second step, until the spray was nearly touching her throat.
Once the soap residue was all gone, she stepped back again, finally dropping back to all fours. “Now you hafta do it,” Noi observed.
Golden Harvest nodded, and switched places with her sister. She slid her hind hooves around, making sure they had good purchase against the tub, before standing. She grinned as she felt a pair of small legs wrap around her barrel. “I've got you,” Noi said. “I won't let you fall down.”
“Thanks.” Golden Harvest smiled—if she did slip, Noi wasn't going to be much help holding her up, but it was a sure sign her little sister was starting to get into the idea of showering. She quickly soaped her belly clean and rinsed it off. She reached forward, opened the faucet valve, and then turned off the water. “Now, because the shower curtain's still closed, you can shake yourself off.”
“Mom says I'm not supposed to shake myself off in the bathroom, 'cause water goes everywhere.”
“When the curtain's closed, it's okay,” Golden Harvest assured her. “But only when the curtain's closed.”
Noi nodded and enthusiastically shook herself off, spraying water all over the shower. Golden Harvest waited until she was done before doing the same, then she opened the curtain and stepped out of the tub, tossing Noi a towel.
Once they were mostly dry, Golden Harvest attacked Noi with a brush, grooming first her coat, and then her mane and tail into a presentable configuration. She gave her sister a pat on the head. “Go tell Mom I'll be down in a minute, okay?”
Noi nodded. “Can I tell her I took a shower like a big pony?”
“As long as you tell her I helped,” she said.
“I will.” Noi nuzzled her cheek. “You're the best big sister ever.”
Before Golden Harvest even had a chance to reply, Noi pranced down the hallway, her head held high. “Come on, let's eat dinner. I'm hungry.”
“I'll be along in a minute.” She stuck her head out the door just in time to see Noi's tail disappear down the stairs.
As she was brushing her own mane into shape, she could hear Noi's voice from downstairs. “Goldie let me take a shower! I'm a big pony now!”
Golden Harvest picked Noi's wrinkled towel up off the floor and hung it in its proper place, then paused a minute by the bathmat. A small, filly-sized muddy footprint was stamped on the very edge, and she set her own forehoof beside it, pressing down into the terry hard enough to leave an impression of her own hoof. Then she hung it over the rim of the bathtub and headed out of the bathroom. Dinner was waiting.