Potty Training Tales

by SuperPinkBrony12

Yaks, Ponies and Potties (Yona)

Author's Note:

Tags: [Sad] [Slice of Life]
Characters: [Yona] [Sandbar]
Written By: SuperPinkBrony12

Yona had expected to have some difficulties adapting to the ways of ponies when she was chosen to attend one of their schools. One of the first things she had to get used to was the fact that she couldn’t just smash stuff whenever she wanted to anymore. It took a few trips to detention before the young yak learned that breaking things on purpose was not tolerated by ponies. And while her long hair had initially given her much trouble, once Professor Rarity styled it into the most beautiful set of curls, Yona no longer had to fear tripping over them and bumping to someone or something else.

But there were other aspects of pony life that gave Yona trouble, chief among them was a concept that all the students from other kingdoms had to learn: Potty training. Well actually, it wasn’t really that since they were already old enough to know how to answer nature’s call and had their own toileting customs. But not all of them were acceptable to ponies, so they had to learn how to make use of what were called bathrooms or restrooms (among other terms).

For Yona this was perhaps her biggest problem, because she had no experience with indoor plumbing of any kind. Back in Yakyakistan yaks had little huts they did their business in, which weren’t anything more than holes in the ground covered up later. And that was only for the yaks who stayed in the village, if yaks had to go at all while traveling, they would just go in a snowbank somewhere and utilize any sort of foliage or tree branches to clean up (washing their hooves was seldom done, more because they had no real access to any sources of water in their cold climates).

Yet it was expected of her to utilize these bathrooms and what was inside of them in order to do her business, toilets. Yona’s first attempt at using one did not go smoothly. It was one of the so called throne models, though why it was called that Yona had no idea as to her it didn’t resemble any kind of throne at all. It was just a really big bowl with a seat, and a strange handle like object made of silver. And it had water for whatever reason.

“Professors says Yona have to use toilet while at school,” Yona said to herself as she stood inside a stall, eyeing the toilet in front of her in all its strange wonder. “If using toilet help Yona fit in and be accepted by ponies, then Yona try.”

And try the yak did. She trotted forward quite nervously, her usual confidence nowhere to be seen. She didn’t know what exactly this thing did or how it worked, and she was afraid she might mess up “using” it somehow. But she was too stubborn and prideful to admit that she didn’t know how a toilet worked. “Other creatures just make fun of Yona.” She thought to herself, assuming that they had no trouble using these things. And if everyone else could use it just fine why should she be the exception?

Getting up onto the seat was easy enough, Yona’s hooves initially slipped right off because the seat was so smooth and she was not expecting it. But after only a minute she was able to find a place to grip and used it to pull herself up from the ground and turn herself around.

But as soon as Yona had placed her rump on the seat, there was a faint crack and then the next thing she knew there was water everywhere! Looking down, the yak saw what looked like white chunks where the toilet used to be. Apparently her weight was too much for the toilet to handle, and she had broken it completely. Never in all her life had she felt so humiliated.

“Hey, Yona!” The impatient voice of Smolder called from the other side of the door. “Hurry it up in there, will you?! Class is about to start!”

Yona came trotting out as the water spilled out of the stall and onto the bathroom floor, tears of shame streaming their way down the yak’s face.

Smolder locked eyes with what remained of the toilet and let out a gasp! “Yona, what did you do?!” It wouldn’t occur to her until later that perhaps that wasn’t the best response to the situation, because it only served to make Yona feel more ashamed and embarrassed.

---

Twilight tried her best not to groan when she learned of Yona’s unfortunate accident. “I suppose I should’ve seen this coming,” She said to herself. “Of course a yak would be too heavy for our toilets to handle, even one in Yona’s size. Guess I’ll have to make other arrangements.”

Those other arrangements took the form of replacing the destroyed throne toilet with something more yak compatible. The new toilet was now more like a big box or trench that rested on the floor of the stall. There wasn’t a handle, instead there was some kind of strangely colored tile nearby. And it was said that several other toilets just like it were being installed throughout the school, since they were more sanitary and less of a hassle to use for a lot of creatures (though a few of the old ones remained, mostly for the pony students who were used to them).

But even after the replacement toilet was installed, Yona still had a hard time figuring it out. Her first attempt to use it caused her to get one hoof tangled up with toilet paper, while another one accidentally stepped on the colored tile. Yona promptly slipped backward a bit and her butt happened to dip down into the box as one of her hooves had ended up touching, and pushing down on the flush pedal. “FWOOSH!” The toilet loudly roared as it began flushing. It wasn’t long before her entire backside was being hit by a powerful rush of water. The powerful suction was not strong enough to affect her, but the water was still unpleasantly cold.

So having struck out twice with the toilets at school, Yona resorted to the only option available to her (besides the possibility of wearing diapers, she did not want to be the only creature in school who was forced to wear them): She would go outside and do her business behind the school, like a wild animal. Even then, though, she still heard the whispers from other creatures about how it was wrong for her to do that and that something was wrong with her because of that. All of which only served to make the yak feel more isolated and alone, an outcast and a total stranger in a society she had so desperately wanted to be part of and learn more about.

To one creature who happened to be close to Yona, that was unacceptable. He couldn’t stand to see one of his friends be so upset and unhappy. He was going to do something about it, so help him Celestia!

Thus, one day, Sandbar opted to talk to Yona during the break between classes. The time of day when most students usually went to the bathroom. “Hey, Yona,” He greeted with that trademark smile of his. It seemed like he almost never let anything bother him. “You going somewhere?”

“Yes!” Yona replied, a bit too eagerly. Even yaks didn’t exactly announce when they were answering nature’s call as it was, yaks would just slip away to do it in private. Besides, she had come to learn that ponies didn’t announce such things, and it was her understanding that when living with ponies one had to abide by at least some of their rules. “Yona need to… er…” She paused, trying to think of a way to get around the situation without telling Sandbar. “Go for walk outside. Yona want to sniff flowers and relax.”

Sandbar tried to hold back a giggle. “Great idea, Yona. But uh, don’t you think it might be better if you uh… used the bathroom first? That’s what these breaks are kind of for, you know.”

“Sandbar know?!” Yona exclaimed before realizing her mistake.

“Yona, it’s not a secret that you go outside to go to the bathroom. Lots of students are talking about it,” Sandbar commented. “But you’re not a wild animal, you’re a yak. You weren’t raised in a barn, were you?”

The yak shook her head and snorted. “No! Yona raised in Yakyakistan! Yakyakistan no barn!”

The colt opted to take Yona by the hoof (much to Yona’s surprise). “Then you know what you gotta do, right? You gotta do what all civilized creatures do.”

“But, Yona already try to use pony toilets. Yona break first one and mess up on second one,” Yona protested. “Yona and pony toilets not get along.”

“It’s a toilet, it’s not some sentient creature,” Sandbar couldn’t help but chuckle. “So you had a few bad experiences? Who hasn’t? I’m sure a lot of other students had just as much trouble adapting to some of the toilets here as you’ve had. I mean, the ones Headmare Twilight built for you certainly took some getting used to for me. But if I could learn how to use a toilet built for yaks, you can totally do the same.”

Sandbar led Yona along to one of the bathrooms, and after a bit of searching unsuccessfully he found a stall that had one of the squat toilets built specifically to be used by creatures like Yona. “It’s not that hard once you get the hang of it,” He explained. “You just have to make sure you don’t make any unnecessary movements while you um… do what you have to do. And of course you have to watch the flush pedal so you don’t step on it by mistake, it wastes water.”

“So when toilet paper come into play?” Yona questioned, remembering that the roll had been what had tripped her up last time.

“Not until after you’ve used the toilet. You use the toilet paper to clean up,” Sandbar explained. “And you usually just need one hoof for that, though if you need to use more hooves that’s fine. You just have to watch where your hooves are and where you place them. And in some cases you gotta watch out for puddles, these floors can get really slippery. Trust me, I speak from experience.”

“Sandbar have problems with toilet too?” Yona suddenly realized.

“Well at first, yeah, just like I said,” The colt replied while blushing a bit. “But my parents taught me that just because you run into trouble doesn’t mean you give up. I know you can get the hang of these toilets if you just keep trying. You can’t let one bad experience stop you, because then you’ll never do anything interesting or even necessary in life.”

---

Thanks to Sandbar’s advice (and to a lesser extent demonstration of where one's hooves should be and when), Yona was able to master the school toilets much more easily than she had anticipated. Pretty soon there were only distant memories of her going outside to go to the bathroom. Of course regular pony toilets were still inaccessible to her. Even when she tried one that was supposedly brand new, it couldn’t take her weight and cracked into pieces. So squat toilets were the only ones she was able to use. But it did make her feel better knowing that other creatures used them too, and that they too had at one point or another, struggled with such things.

Looking back on the experience years later, Yona would insist that this probably when Sandbar had first started to take an interest in her as something more than just a friend. Even if it would be at least a year before he would even think of asking her to a dance.

Sandbar, for his part, insisted that it was just a friend helping another friend and there was nothing more to it than that. After all, he had a baby sister that he helped take care of, so knowing a thing or two about toilets and how to use them was kind of to be expected.

Comments

[Yosh-E-O]

This tale is interesting as it does present how many challenges that the Student 6 must have had upon starting at The School Of Friendship. I wonder how Twilight did go about acclimating the other creatures to pony plumbing, along with other things?

From what we saw, the only member of The Student Six who'd have any clue about the indoor plumbing, sanitation, etc. would have been Sand Bar. Smolder certainly didn't live in a place with plumbing. Heck, they didn't even have houses! It seemed all the dragons did was sleep in caves, or in warm places within the Dragon Lands.

It's doubtful The Changelings had any such thing. They had their hive but I doubt Chrysalis ever cared to modernize the place.

Mt. Aeris could have had plumbing due to its homes and Queen Novo's palace. However the Storm King, more Tempest Shadow, allowed the majority of the place to laid to ruin. It's clear that Sky Star had some understanding of how to live in a more civilized place but Silver Stream was either too young during the attack, or born in Seaquestria.

Griffons, well, Griffonstone says it all. They aren't exactly known for upkeep.

And this story pretty much sums up the Yaks.

It certainly would have been an episode, or two, in itself to see the struggles of Twilight and friends getting all the creatures familiar with a common set of standards while still respecting their individual customs.