//------------------------------// // Bad Day // Story: Scarlet Foal // by Collins4112 //------------------------------// A/N: Welcome back. So I really appreciate all the favorites and reviews this story is getting. Please read and relax. We rejoin Ditzy a month and a half later. Carson buzzed around the room happily. Ditzy watched as he flew up above. Carson had newfound control over his flying ability: he still crashed, but it happened a lot less. His little wings buzzed very fast to keep him up at a steady altitude. Ditzy went to the kitchen to retrieve some baby food. He had started feeding on real food, he still couldn't eat solids though. As soon as she brought the baby mush back, Carson flew straight into his mother. Just like his father, he was always ready to eat. She picked him up and brought him back to the kitchen to put him in his high-chair. Ditzy undid the cap to the food and put its contents into a bowl. As soon as she placed the bowl in front of him Carson dove his face into it. "You're supposed to eat the food, Muffin." Ditzy laughed. Carson didn't pay her any attention: he was too busy gobbling up the mush. It took only moments for him to eat, mostly because he got more food on him than in him. Ditzy grabbed a wash cloth, and wiped his face, revealing a happy Carson. She smiled back at her bubbly son. Ditzy heard Dinky roll out of bed. In a few moments, the filly unicorn walked into the kitchen, yellow mane in knots. Carson looked to his older sister with his usual happy demeanor. Dinky ruffled his mane. "Good morning, Muffin." Ditzy said. "What would you like for breakfast?" "I don't know." Dinky yawned as she sat at the dinner table. "Pancakes?" Ditzy asked. Dinky perked up, and gave a vigorous nod. Ditzy turned on the stove and put a pan on the heater. She quickly whipped up the quick pancake batter. The batter sizzled as it hit the hot pan. In a few minutes she had a plate of pancakes hot and ready. "Pancakes are ready." Dinky hopped excitedly, and took her plate and began eating up the meal. Carson reached his legs out in a vain attempt to reach the hot food. Ditzy quickly made herself some pancakes as well. She sat down and began to eat the pancakes. Carson was getting frustrated that he couldn't have the good looking food, and began pounding his hooves on his chair. "Carson, stop that." Ditzy said gently but firmly. Carson stopped for a moment, and then attempted to fly out of his high chair, but he was strapped in to the chair. In frustration he took his bowl of food and tossed it at Ditzy. The contents splattered all over her. Dinky giggled, and Ditzy her shot her a glare as she wiped the food mush off herself. Ditzy stood from her plate of pancakes, and walked over to Carson. She unhooked him from the high chair. Carson's little wings fluttered at the opportunity to be out of the chair, but Ditzy didn’t let him fly off. She took him into his nursery and set him in his play pen. She took the toys out of the pen, and closed the top of the pen to prevent him from getting out. "Alright. Ten minutes." Ditzy said, more to herself than Carson. She knew the punishment wouldn't really stick with him, but Ditzy had to stop herself before she got too frustrated. She walked out of the room and back to the kitchen to find her plate with a large mess in place of the pancakes, and Dinky was in the other room playing. "Dinky, did you eat my pancakes?" Ditzy asked as she began to wash the table. "Eeyup." She drawled from the other room. Ditzy sighed as she wiped the table and plates. After a few minutes, she finished the cleaning job, and went to the living room to hopefully get a moment's rest. As soon as she sat down on couch, she heard a soft zipping sound. Then a soft buzzing sound, and then Carson flew out into the living room. Ditzy reeled in surprise as he fluttered overhead. Dinky ran out after him, her lips formed into a guilty smile. "Sorry mommy, I just wanted to play with him." Dinky said. Ditzy frowned. She flew up for a moment and caught Carson and brought him back down to the ground, holding him in her forelegs. "Dinky, you know that you shouldn't do that." Ditzy said firmly, and Dinky sunk back. Then, Carson burped and spat up on Ditzy's chest. Ditzy sighed; it was going to be a long day. ___________ Ditzy looked at herself in the mirror. Her mane and tail were frizzy, she had bags under her eyes, she had all manner of Carson's spit up on her, and to top it off she hadn’t had time to eat since breakfast. She had finally gotten Carson to take a nap and Dinky to go play with her friends. Just as she laid down to take a nap of her own, the door swung open and crashed against the wall. Ditzy looked up to see her husband: he looked tired as well. "Howdy." Macintosh sighed. "Ah've had a long day..." "So have I." Ditzy said, as she pulled herself up from the couch. Big Macintosh kept walking slowly into the kitchen. "Staying home all day?" Macintosh asked: it sounded sarcastic. Ditzy knew he didn't mean it to sound sarcastic, but she wasn't going to let him get away with it. "I woke up, tried to make myself look pretty, got Carson out of his crib, got him breakfast, made pancakes for Dinky and I, Carson threw his food at me, I went to put him in his play pen for ten minutes, Dinky ate my pancakes as well as hers, and she left a mess." Ditzy said, Big Macintosh was about to say something be she cut him off as she said: "Then, Carson spit up on me, he refused to take his nap, Dinky knocked a jar of jam out of the fridge and broke it, then she went to play as I cleaned it up, Carson made a mess in his diaper four times today, spat up on me a lot more than once, and somehow got himself so dirty he needed a bath, twice." Macintosh mulled it over for a moment. "And?" "And? That was a lot of work I put in today." Ditzy defended her hard work. "I put in more." As soon as it came out Macintosh looked like he regretted it, but he didn't stand down from it. "Lots of hard, manual labor to do on the farm, somepony has to work to provide." "Yeah." Ditzy snorted. "You are really providing with a job that doesn't pay anything." "Applejack says she'll pay me when she can." Mac defended his position. "I see the apple stand almost every day, making a profit. Why can't she give you a little bit of that profit?" Ditzy asked scornfully. "Applejack says..." He stopped himself from saying the same thing twice. He snorted then continued on his walk into the kitchen. Ditzy laid back down on the couch; she hated when she argued with Macintosh, even if they did it so rarely. She closed her eyes and started to drift off to sleep. Carson started to cry from the other room. "Mac, can you get him?" She didn't hear anything, besides Carson's high pitched cry. She rolled off the couch and went to get Carson. She picked him out of his crib, and checked his diaper. She bounced him around gently. "What's wrong, sweetie?" Ditzy asked. Her son didn't respond, as expected. He kept on bawling his little eyes out. She looked in his mouth and realized he was teething. Ditzy sighed; he wasn't going to stop crying anytime soon. After a few minutes of him crying, Macintosh came in, an annoyed look on his face. "What's the problem?" "Carson's teething." Ditzy informed him. Macintosh took a moment to register the new information. "Ah got just the thing." Big Macintosh said as he left the room. Ditzy tried to calm Carson, but it wasn't working. Big Macintosh came back with a bottle of whisky and a shot glass. "Old Apple family remedy: little bit of whisky clears the pain right up." Macintosh poured a little bit of the alcoholic beverage into the glass. Ditzy pulled Carson back. "We are not giving our son whisky." "It's just a little." Macintosh assured her, but Ditzy wasn't convinced. She wasn't about to give Carson any sort of alcohol. "Ah was given it when Ah was little, so was Applejack, and Ah gave it to Apple Bloom when she was teething." "We can just give him some foal aspirin." Ditzy said, preferring to use the safe medication. Carson's crying was starting to wind down. "Nope, whisky gives character." Macintosh argued. "Character? He's a foal, and we are not giving him alcohol!" Ditzy said a lot louder than she meant to, Macintosh narrowed his eyes. "Fine." Macintosh grunted. He drank down the whisky from the shot glass and walked out of the room. Ditzy got some foal aspirin from a bottle they kept in the room, and gave it to Carson. After a few minutes he stopped his crying. Ditzy sighed. She walked back out to her bedroom to hopefully get a moment’s rest. She laid down in the bed and let sleep encroach on her. "Ah'm going out, Ditzy." Macintosh called. His voice shook her from her sleep. "Alright." Ditzy accidently put an uncaring tone to her voice. She heard Macintosh grunt and leave the house. She sighed, she would have to apologize for that or else she would feel bad, but for now she needed sleep. __________ Ditzy woke as she felt her stomach rumble, reminding her she hadn't eaten all day. She rolled out of bed and walked out to the kitchen. As she did she passed the living room. She looked in for a moment, and saw Macintosh sitting in a chair, asleep with Carson in his forelegs, also sleeping. Ditzy smiled and went to the kitchen to make herself a quick dinner. After she finished eating the dinner she made for herself, Ditzy walked into the living room. She looked at Macintosh, and then noticed the whisky bottle with a recently used shot glass next to it. "Mac?" Ditzy asked. Her voice shook him from his slumber. He looked up at her, showing no emotion. "Did you give Carson whisky?" "Uhhhh...well... Eeyup." He said, unable to come up with an excuse; not that Ditzy would have believed it anyway. "I told you we weren’t going to give him whisky. I can't believe you went behind my back give him it." Ditzy scolded. Macintosh didn't look her in the eye. "How much did you give him?" "Well, Ah gave him just a little..." He said. Ditzy sighed in relief, at least he didn't give him the whole shot. "But it slipped and he downed the whole sho-" He didn't even get to finish the word: "What? He downed the whole drink! Why did you even fill it up that much?" Big Macintosh looked ashamed, which would have usually been enough to make Ditzy stop scorning him, but this was their son and whisky was a strong drink. Ditzy took Carson out of his legs. "Ah...Ah'm sorry." Macintosh pleaded. "Mac...I'm sorry, but that's not good enough. I told you that we would give him foal-aspirin, not your family remedy!" She yelled at him. She knew it was too late now; the alcohol was already in his system. "Well, it worked, he's out-cold. What were you thinking? Oh, wait, you weren’t thinking!" Big Macintosh looked hurt, but he knew that he couldn't say anything to make the situation better. "Just go pick up Dinky from Twist's." Ditzy said angrily. "And don't give her whisky." Macintosh slinked out of the house, head down and ears flat. Ditzy put her head to Carson's chest and listened to his heartbeat: it was normal. She would be watching him like a hawk, to make sure that he was alright. Ditzy was tired, frustrated, and angry. She doubted she would get any sleep: she would be awake all night worrying about Carson's health. Ditzy loved her husband, but what had he had done was incredibly stupid, and Ditzy felt betrayed, that he went behind her back just to prove his point of family remedy over medicine, and then ended up having their three month old son down a shot of whisky. Carson burped in his sleep, and Ditzy could smell the drink on his breath. Ditzy took him to the master bedroom and set him on the bed. She wouldn't be sleeping, but she would be watching him at all times. Ditzy sighed to herself as she saw Carson's little wings buzzed from a dream he was having. She looked back on her day: all-in-all, it had been a bad one. A/N:Thank you for taking the time to read this story. I also thank my beta reader BlackRoseRevan.