Bathtime for Ponies Part 2

by Starry Eyed

Gilda

“Gilda! You need a bath, NOW!” you yell from ten feet in the air.

You had been a little smarter handling Gilda than you had with past bath-hating flyers, but it still hadn’t worked out. You had just put down your book on the different types of down-feathers (always good to brush up on such things before bathing a new species) and had already gotten hold of Gilda before telling her about the bath.

In retrospect, just griping the young flyer really did nothing to stop her from flying away, dragging you into the air. Since this wasn’t the first time this had happened, you just held on for dear life and waited for her to tire out, which she had much faster than Rainbow Dash had.

Gilda had finally given up trying to carry both of your weights, and set you both down exhausted. You have a feeling of déjà vu.

Gilda may be too tired to fly, but she still has claws, which she flaunts to you with a battle cry (which was actually just a chirp and growl sound together and was kinda’ cute). You look Gilda right in the eye fearlessly, “I have bathed Discord, and worked with him. I’ve bathed a dragon. I have bathed the Alicorns that rule the heavens above. I’m not afraid of you.” Gilda may have been grouchy, but she also respected power and coolness, and your little talk had just ranked you as the coolest adult she had met.

You put Gilda under your arm and walk up to the bathroom. It’s everything within your power not to set her aside and do a victory dance. The truth was you were scared to death of her claws and her willingness to use them. But your bluff had worked, and Gilda now thought you were some sort of super human. Score one awesome point for you!

Once you got to the bathroom, you placed Gilda in the tub before going back to close the door. You then begin your plans to wash a griffon for the first time. You start by squirting some feather shampoo into your palm and working it into all the white feathers on her head and neck.

You are especially careful not to get any too close to her eyes, stopping just shy of her natural purple outlines. Once every part of her head that you can safely wash is clean, you realize how hard it is going to be to rinse it all out without getting it in her eyes. You have her tilt her head back and being rinsing it off the top of her head.

Even after twelve rinses, there are some places on her neck the water doesn’t reach, so you have to get out a rinsing dish and a washcloth and wash her face and neck extensively. Even with all your expertise, this takes about two minutes. The bath has only started and you are already tired, but seeing how shiny and flawlessly white her crest is makes you feel proud.

You then move onto the tail, or more specifically the tuff of fur on the end of it. Since it’s so small, it only takes a moment to wash, to both your and Gilda’s great relief since she doesn’t like you touching her tail.

Since Gilda’s fur is longer and coarser than a pony’s coat fur, you decide to wash the whole body this time. It will take too long to shampoo her whole coat by hand, so you get out a scrubbing brush and begin to lather the whole coat. With the brush this only takes a minute. You decide not to rinse her until you also have the wings lathered, so you switch back to the wing shampoo and get started.

Now you ask Gilda to turn around so you can wash her wings. She turns, and spreads her wings, which are about three times bigger than a pegasis’ wings per her size. You don’t know why you never realized how much bigger griffon’s wings were comparatively.

You get out the feather shampoo again and begin working it into her wings, careful to preen them properly. Due to the sheer size of her wings, it takes several minutes to fully lather and preen both of them inside and out. Because you take so long, Gilda gets tired of holding her wings up, and only holds up the wing you are washing at any given time. By the time both wings are fully lathered, you are tired, and the water is getting cold.

Not wanting to rinse her wings and coat with cold water, you unplug the tub early and turn on the sprayer from the shower. Using the sprayer, it only takes a minute to rinse Gilda’s whole body off.

Finally, you let Gilda out of the tub and onto the bath mat. You let her know that you’re just as glad that it’s over, and begin drying her. Because you don’t have to be as precise with the drying as you did with lathering or rinsing, you have her dry in less than a minute.

You stand up and start to admire your work, and are a little surprised at how well it turned out. Gilda’s feathers are super fluffy now that they are dry, and since there are so many it really shows. She’s almost looks like a kitten and a baby bird mixed together (which technically…). You start to squee in delight, but Gilda gives you a, “DON’T. YOU. DARE.” Look, which fails miserably because it only makes her look cuter.

You both walk downstairs, where you hear a knock on the door. You answer it to find Rainbow Dash and her dad, who apparently arrived a couple of minutes ago. “Oh good you’re here. Sorry for the wait.” You turn back to Gilda who is still close by, “Gilda, Rainbow’s here for the sleepover.” You exchange some causal conversation with Rainbow’s Dad, and then head back in to look after the kids.

All you have to do now is take care of two flying troublemakers for the rest of the night and following day. You sigh, “I can’t wait for bedtime.”

Author's Note:

I have been writing and editing for a while now, but this... this was easily the hardest chapter I have ever written. I spent the day before publishing this studying up on the differences in pony fur and lion fur, and the different types of feathers, and the different types of down feathers (there are three), and going over in my head just what steps I would take if I had to wash Gilda. I'm fresh out of Finals anyway and I'm beat. I really like you guys though, so I had to get the chapter done for you.

P.S. I originally had this line right after you start shampooing her head, but since she's not technically a Bald eagle, I removed it.

You realize whoever named the “bald eagle” was obviously not the first person to try to wash one. There were a ton on feathers up there.

Comments

[TwilightsmyMare]

Very cute a... Kitten...? Eaglet...? Er.... Griffinet? Gilda would be so cute! And her and Dash playing together even cuter!

[SuperPinkBrony12]

So we've bathed her but now we have to put her to bed. Oh joy we're in for a long night.

[Icarus Crimsonhoof]

Gilda all poofy...someone make a picture.

[Themaskedferret]

*grins* Very cool. I always did wonder about the name bald eagle. It's not as though they're truly bald like vultures *laughs*