> Feathered Foal Fiasco > by Ribbon Sketch > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Practice Makes... Problems? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday in Ponyville was usually a quiet day. Few ponies walked the streets. Few pegasi flew the skies. Nopony was usually too busy on Sunday, nopony except for a unicorn with a purple coat and her baby dragon assistant. The Ponyville library was quite a mess. Books littered the floor and sat in stacks against the walls. The low, hooted snoring of Owlowiscious was occasionally interrupted by the crisp flip of a page, or pacing hooves on the library floor. “Aw come on, Twilight,” Spike began. “You’ve been at this all day. Besides, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy aren’t even here yet.” “I know Spike, but I need to have a list of possible spells that I can attempt before they get here, as well as the counter spells for those spells. And I need to have this report done for Princess Celestia by next week.” “Next week?” Spike asked, raising an eyebrow. “But that’s seven whole days, Twilight.” The unicorn didn’t look away from her book. “Spike this is a very complicated category of spells,” she replied. “I’m just trying to work ahead so that I still have time to fix things if I slip up.” “Yeah but isn’t that what you always do?” The purple dragon questioned. Before Twilight could reply, a knock came from the door. “Spike, could you get the door please?” Twilight asked. “I’m on it,” Spike replied, stepping around a few books on the floor as he walked over to the door. Upon answering the door, Spike was met with a pink maned pony with a buttermilk yellow coat. Spike smiled. “Hey Fluttershy, come on in.” Upon seeing the baby dragon’s smile, Fluttershy’s timid stance seemed to fade just a bit as she stepped into the library. “Thank you Spike,” she said, softly. Even though Spike was mentally old enough to be Twilight’s personal assistant, Fluttershy couldn’t help but find him absolutely adorable. He was a baby dragon after all. “H-Hi Twilight,” the yellow pegasus greeted. To Spike’s surprise, Twilight looked up from her book and over to Fluttershy with a smile. “Hey Fluttershy,” she said. “I’m so happy you could make it.” “O-Oh, it was nothing really.” Fluttershy said. “Though it took a bit of convincing for Angel to let me move his tail fluffing to tomorrow.” The pegasus suddenly looked at the floor a bit sheepishly. “S-So instead I skipped breakfast so I could fluff it before I came here.” “Angel seems a little high maintenance,” Twilight commented. Fluttershy’s stance became timid once more. “Oh he’s not too high maintenance,” she said. “H-He just likes to follow a schedule.” Before Twilight could respond a cyan and rainbow form suddenly came whizzing through the window and into the library, bringing with her a gush of wind that blew the pages of Twilight’s book aflutter. “Yo Twilight!” The hurricane-esc pegasus greeted as she flapped her blue wings to keep herself off the ground. Twilight looked back at the blue pegasus with a semi annoyed expression. Not only was her mane a mess now but she had also lost the page she had been reading to the gust of wind that Rainbow Dash had brought in with her. Rainbow Dash snickered, putting her hoof over her mouth to stifle a laugh at the sight of her eggheaded friend’s now wind-styled hair. “Oops,” she chuckled. “Guess I went a little too far with my awesome entrance.” “Oh really?” Twilight replied, still unamused. “How could you guess?” With a sigh, Twilight began to find the page that she had been reading. Meanwhile the two pegasi greeted each other and began to converse. “S-So how is Tank doing?” Fluttershy asked. Rainbow chuckled at this. “He’s perfectly fine, Fluttershy,” she said. “You ask me this like every time you see me.” Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle a bit at this. “I-I know,” she said. “I’m just always curious about him. It’s not every day that a tortoise can fly.” “Tank’s been under my wing since I got him. He’s gotta be the best flying tortoise in all of Equestria by now!” The blue pegasus suddenly thought for a moment before speaking again. “Not that there was much competition for that title anyways.” “I think I’ve got it!” Twilight announced, smiling. “Got what?” Rainbow Dash said, looking over to her unicorn friend. “Princess Celestia asked me to do a bit of research on more advanced age spells. I’m supposed to do a report on them. Though age spells are different when it comes to earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. “A-Age spells?” Fluttershy chimed in, albeit a bit quietly. “There’s no need to worry,” Twilight said. “Unicorn magic isn’t strong enough to fully perform age spells. Only an alicorn like Princess Celestia would be powerful enough to do such a thing. If anything, this spell will only shrink your wings a bit.” “Riiight, and if that were to happen is there a quick fix for it?” Rainbow Dash asked, raising a brow. Twilight nodded, before looking to Spike. “Spike, could you grab me the book on pegasi anatomy please?” “Pegasi anatomy!” Spike said, after he pulled a book from one of the many bookshelves within the library. “Here you go Twilight.” Levitating the book over and opening it to a specific page, Twilight spoke. “I’ve done a bit of studying on pegasi wings over the past few days, and I’ve got plenty of counter spells that would be able to fix any alterations.” Rainbow Dash gave a nod at seeing this. “Alright, cuz I’ve got a bit of pranking to do with Pinkie Pie later today, and I’m gonna need my super awesome flying for that.” “S-So, um, h-how do we begin?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight picked up the book which contained the age spell, using her horn to levitate it in front of her. “Well, I’ll have you two stand next to each other so I can focus the spell on both of you. It says that immense concentration is required for a spell like this, so I’ll just have to try my hardest. Princess Celestia wants me to document any minor changes that I’m able to pull off.” Rainbow Dash flew down to the floor before walking over to Fluttershy, standing next to her. “And you’re sure this will only cause minor effects?” She asked. “I’m positive. I don’t think it’d be possible for me to even pull something this complicated off,” Twilight replied. “Alright, cool,” Rainbow Dash replied. “W-Whenever you’re ready then, Twilight,” Fluttershy said with a shy smile. Twilight gave a nod in return, still levitating the book. “Alright, here it goes!” She announced, trying to psyche herself up. After all, she needed to be able to document something in her report to Princess Celestia. Closing her eyes, the purple unicorn began to concentrate, causing her horn to glow. Clearing her mind more and more, Twilight strained herself as she focused all of her mind onto performing the spell at hand. And after a moment, her horn created a bright flash of magic that left Twilight panting a bit for air once it dissipated. Something about how she had casted that spell, she just couldn’t put her hoof on it. But something had certainly felt different. And oddly enough it reminded her of her entrance exam to Princess Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. When Rainbow Dash had performed the mythical Sonic Rainboom all those years ago, which had ultimately granted Twilight’s entrance to the school and had given her her cutie mark. Upon opening her eyes, the unicorn was met with a shocking sight however, and she suddenly realized why she had felt the way she did about the spell. Where her two pegasi friends once stood now sat two oddly familiar looking foals. One had a cyan coat and a messy, rainbow mane. The other had a buttermilk yellow coat, and her semi wavy mane was a cotton candy pink. “B-But how?” Twilight cried to herself. “H-How did I-” “No way!” Spike interrupted. “You turned them back into foals! Just wait until Princess Celestia hears about this!” Though her dragon assistant’s intentions were good, Twilight’s heart suddenly dropped when she heard this. “No!” She cried, cutting Spike off. “Celestia cannot know about this! She’d fail me if she found out that I was still somehow struggling with basic magic control!” “But you pulled off an alicorn-level spell!” Spike said, trying to be encouraging. “I think she’d be impressed with you Twilight.” A sudden loud and high pitched cry interrupted the conversation. Wincing at the sudden noise, Twilight and Spike both looked over to its source. The foal-sized Fluttershy was now wailing unhappily as Rainbow Dash was flying above her, trying to tug her up by her pink tail to get her to fly. “I-I think we have a bigger problem at hand…” Twilight said, realizing she now had two foals in her possession. > The Mad 'Dash' and Fluttercry > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “O-Okay Spike, new plan,” Twilight declared. “Could you please bring me a fresh scroll and a book on foal care?” The baby dragon gave a nod at this request, quickly grabbing a blank scroll for Twilight before he went to search for the book she had asked for. “Hmmm, hair care, pet care, babysitting…” The dragon recited the books as he ran his claw along the bookshelf. “Ah! Here’s one.” After retrieving the book, Spike read the title of it aloud. “The Basics of Foal Care.” Twilight used her horn to retrieve the book from her dragon assistant, a newfound look of confidence on her face. “That’s perfect, Spike. I’m going to write a list of supplies that we’re going to need to handle Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.” And with that the purple unicorn cracked open the book and began to read. “O-Oh,” Spike said. “But what do we do about them in the meantime-ow!” The baby dragon was suddenly cut off as he felt something tug at the scales on his head. Looking up he saw Rainbow Dash flying just above him, a smirk on her face as she giggled down at him. “Hey, what’s the big idea Rainbow Dash?” The purple dragon asked, looking up at the giggling pegasus. Rainbow Dash only responded with a playful babble as she went to grab for the dragon’s head scales once again. Spike immediately put his claws over his head, ducking away from the foal. “Hey! No pulling my scales!” He said, scowling up at Rainbow Dash. Much to the dragon’s dismay, the blue pegasus stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at him, which caused a bit of drool to dribble down her chin. “Oh that’s it. I think you need to go in time out!” Spike said as he tried to grab for the foal. Rainbow Dash’s expression turned to a competitive smirk as she swiftly flew out of Spike’s reach. “Hey!” The dragon yelled, making fruitless jumps to try to grab at the blue foal. After sticking her tongue out at the dragon once more, Rainbow Dash took off through the library, flapping her tiny wings as fast as she could as she flew. She let out a gleeful squeal of joy as she sped around the room in circles, enjoying the feeling of wind rushing through her mane even as a foal. “Come back here!” Spike yelled, as he chased after the pegasus. Rainbow Dash didn’t stop however. She continued to fly around the library, occasionally diving down just so she could zip past Spike and cause him to stumble in his attempt to make another grab for her. “T-Twilight! I could use some help here!” Spike called, still trying to chase after Rainbow Dash. “Just a second Spike,” Twilight replied, as she finished writing something down on the scroll. She then set her quill down and trotted over to Spike just as he made another failed attempt to grab at the blue pegasus. After helping Spike up, Twilight looked up at the zooming foal. “She’s just too fast! Even as a foal she’s impossible to catch!” Spike said. Twilight’s ears drooped in horrified dismay as she watched Rainbow Dash race around the room. “M-Maybe I can use a halting spell on her!” The purple unicorn thought aloud. She then locked her eyes on the blue pegasus and concentrated on her as her horn started to glow. Noticing this, Rainbow Dash slowed down for a split second as her smirk vanished. Spike was easy enough to fool, but the foal knew even she couldn’t compete with Twilight’s magic. In a flash Rainbow Dash sped across the room. And to Twilight and Spike’s horror, she then flew out the library window. “We have to catch her!” Twilight cried. “I’m on it!” Spike said, running towards the door. “It think it’d be better if I went after her,” Twilight said. “If I’m able to corner her somehow I’ll be able to cast a halting spell on her.” “But I-” Spike began. “I need you to stay here in case she comes back,” the purple unicorn stated, cutting her assistant off. And before Spike could respond, Twilight used her magic to fling the library door open and she trotted after her flying, foalified friend. Spike gave a huffed sigh, sitting down on the first step of the staircase. He was considering walking up to his bed and curling up when suddenly, something pulled him back to focus. He felt something unpleasantly slimy on the tip of his tail “Ew, what got on my tail?” He asked aloud as he looked back at his tail. To his surprise however, Spike saw that a yellow foal sat one stair above him. She sat on the step, happily gumming on Spike’s tail and covering it with drool. The dragon cringed at this, gently pulling his now slimy tail out of the foal’s mouth. “Aw gross,” he said, before looking back to the pegasus. Fluttershy gave a soft giggle in response before she reached her tiny hooves up to Spike, babbling up at him. “Huh? What do you need?” The dragon asked. The yellow foal babbled more at him, once again waving her front hooves up at him. “You want picked up?” Spike questioned, before picking the tiny pegasus up. Fluttershy gave a drooly coo when the dragon lifted her up, and Spike smiled a bit as the foal fluttered her tiny wings out happily. “At least you’re easy to handle,” the dragon commented, albeit more to himself than to Fluttershy. “You’re a lot better than Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy gave another happy babble at the purple dragon. Spike couldn’t help but smile at this as he held the giggly yellow foal in his arms. “Hmm, you like animals. Maybe you can play with Owlowiscious,” Spike proposed, before looking to see if his avian coworker was awake. However to his dismay the owl sat atop his perch, still asleep. “Figures,” the dragon thought aloud. “He is nocturnal.” Fluttershy looked up at Spike, babbling up at him. She ended her drooly, incoherent sentence of babbling by sticking her tongue out and blowing a tiny raspberry, which caused her to kick her hooves out and let out a tiny squeal of laughter. Spike couldn’t help but chuckle at this. “You’re much more talkative as a foal,” he commented, eliciting yet another babble from Fluttershy. Spike looked around the library absentmindedly, however he suddenly stood up as he noticed Twilight’s list on her desk. “Hmm, I wonder what Twilight’s written down so far,” Spike said as he walked over to the desk, still holding the foal sized Fluttershy. Standing on his tiptoes to peek over the desk, Spike began to read the list aloud. “Let’s see. Foal food, foal powder, foal wipes, and diapers. Huh, guess she doesn’t have much written down yet.” Fluttershy babbled a bit once more, and Spike felt the foal shift a bit in his arms. It was then that the dragon suddenly noticed something that made his eyes widen a bit. A warm feeling had started to run down the front of him, followed by the faint pitter sound of liquid starting to drip onto the floor. Hesitantly looking at the foal in his arms, Spike’s suspicions were unfortunately confirmed when he saw that Fluttershy’s back hooves were now dripping wet, along with his own chest. “Oh yuck!” The dragon shrieked, quickly holding the dripping pegasus at arm’s length. Fluttershy’s content smile vanished immediately, and she looked back at the dragon with a sorry expression. Spike just sighed, cringing once more as he noticed the yellow puddle on the floor in front of him. “Come on, Fluttershy,” the dragon began, quickly walking to the bathroom with the yellow foal. “A warning would’ve been nice.” Fluttershy whimpered softly, and Spike didn’t immediately notice the tears that began to well up in her turquoise eyes. The dragon stepped into the bathroom, and when he did finally notice Fluttershy’s tears it was far too late. Just as the dragon was about to set her down so he could turn on the bathtub faucet, the winged foal hiccupped as her lip started to quiver. Seeing this, Spike became anxious. “Wait, Fluttershy! Please don’t start crying!” He pleaded, desperately trying to think of something to calm her down. Despite the dragon’s plea, Fluttershy whimpered louder as she kicked her little hooves out in discontent. She hiccupped once more as her little ears drooped back. And then she began to cry. Spike winced at the high pitched wailing, and he turned his head away from the foal as her cries echoed throughout the bathroom. The dragon then sat Fluttershy on the floor as he frantically turned on the tub faucet. Of course the first thing he had to worry about was cleaning the pegasus up. If he was lucky, maybe that would even stop her crying. Spike held his claws to his head as he watched the tub fill with water, trying to shield his ears from Fluttershy’s crying. Fluttershy sat on the bathroom floor still, kicking out her tiny hooves as she continued to wail loudly. Eventually, Spike turned off the faucet and he quickly picked up the sobbing pegasus, holding her away from him as he carefully lowered her into the water. “T-There!” He said, frantically. “S-See? A nice warm bath!” However to the dragon’s surprise, Fluttershy only squirmed when she was lowered into the water. The foal wailed even louder, kicking her hooves against the water, inadvertently splashing some of it at Spike. “A-Ack! F-Fluttershy please!” The dragon recoiled, however that splash of water made him realize his grave mistake. The water felt ice cold! He must’ve forgotten to check its temperature in his frantic panic. Quickly, Spike lifted the now soaking wet, sobbing foal out of the water and set her on the floor once again. He quickly turned on the faucet once again, this time making sure it was on the hottest setting so that it would warm up the ice cold bath water. He then went to retrieve a towel to dry himself off. Meanwhile Fluttershy only cried louder. Sure she was usually soft spoken, even for a foal. Though with the recent events of having an accident and then being plunged into freezing water, the winged foal was in no mood to be quiet. So instead she just sat on the floor and continued to wail unhappily. Suddenly, the yellow pegasus’s attention was pulled as something flew into the bathroom. And she watched as a sleepy looking Owlowiscious swooped down and landed in front of her. Fluttershy’s wails slowly quieted as the owl tucked his wings back at his sides. Owlowiscious looked at the sniffling foal with a silent, curious gaze. Fluttershy looked back at him, still whimpering softly. She was still a bit teary eyed, yet surprisingly she had calmed down quite a bit. After a couple seconds the shivering foal babbled softly up at the owl. Owlowiscious tilted his head a bit in return, letting out a soft hoot. Fluttershy let out a tiny giggle at this, a tiny smile appearing on her face. Owlowiscious tilted his head the other way and hooted once again, this time flapping his wings out a bit. The yellow foal let out a tiny squeal of glee at this, softly kicking her front hooves against the floor. No matter what age Fluttershy was, animals always seemed to provide a comforting, and in this case entertaining, presence. Owlowiscious continued to entertain the winged foal as Spike returned to the bathroom, holding a couple of towels. After checking the water temperature, the dragon turned off the faucet. Now the water was just the right temperature, so then Spike carefully picked up the giggling pegasus and lowered her back into the bathtub. Fluttershy babbled up at Spike before she looked over to her newfound avian friend. Owlowiscious gave a small hoot before he flew over to the tub and perched atop the spigot. Spike couldn’t help but get a semi surprised smile, looking at the owl. “Wow, how did you get her to stop crying so easily?” The dragon asked. “Hoo.” The owl replied, turning his head around backwards so that he faced the dragon. Spike blinked. “Fluttershy,” he told the owl. “How did you calm Fluttershy down?” “Hoo.” Spike raised a brow at the owl. “I just told you who,” he said. However then the dragon got a look of realization as he looked back at Owlowiscious. He chuckled. “Right. I forgot that’s all you say.” > Sweet Apple Braker > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight Sparkle galloped through Ponyville. She ran as fast as her hooves could carry her, still chasing after the flying rainbow streak that was her friend. “Rainbow Dash! Please stop!” She called, but to no avail. Letting out a panted sigh, the purple unicorn groaned in annoyance as she continued to race after Rainbow Dash. “How am I going to manage catching her?” She thought aloud. “Catch who?” An upbeat voice suddenly came from beside her. Still running, Twilight looked beside her. To her surprise, an energetic pink pony was bouncing alongside her. It was as if she just appeared out of nowhere. “P-Pinkie Pie? When did you get here?” Twilight panted, still running. The pink pony let out an effortless giggle, despite the fact that she was still bouncing at top speed alongside Twilight. “Hey Twilight!” She giggled. “I was just at Sugarcube Corner. I saw you run by, so I thought I’d run over and say hi! Anyways, why are we running so fast? You know Twilight, exercise is good, but you really gotta learn to pace yourself if you wanna run.” The pink pony continued to talk and bounce without even breaking a sweat. Twilight on the other hand was on the brink of collapsing. She had been galloping after the pesky blue pegasus foal for almost an hour now. “I-I’m not exercising…” Twilight huffed. “I-I’m trying to chase after Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie just tilted her head. Twilight groaned. “It’s a long story…” Suddenly the blue pegasus foal made a dive behind a house. The unicorn and the pink ball of energy galloped behind the house, however Twilight suddenly stopped as she realized that Rainbow Dash was nowhere in sight. “W-Where did she go?” the unicorn asked, frantically looking around as she panted for air. She could’ve sworn that Rainbow Dash had just ducked behind this house. “Ooooh! Look at the rainbow!” Pinkie Pie gawked, watching as a rainbow streak was soaring away through the sky. “Kinda reminds me of Rainbow Dash!” Twilight took off running, following the famous tail trail that her speedy pegasus friend was known for. “Wait a minute, that IS Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie squeaked, before she bounced after Twilight and the pegasus foal. Rainbow Dash continued to fly at top speed. She felt amazing! Nothing was better than speeding through the sky and feeling the rush of wind through her mane and coat. She watched as the scenery below continued to whizz by, swooping downwards a bit to get a better view. She was flying over a dusty dirt trail, occasionally passing by white fences that enclosed animal pens. Looking behind her, Rainbow Dash saw that Twilight had fallen quite a bit behind. The foal got a smirk at this, facing her head forward again just in time to fly straight into the trunk of a tree. The foal collided with the trunk with a dense thud before falling stomach first into a mud puddle on the ground. The tree she had crashed into shook a bit from the impact, and then a single apple fell from its branches, hitting the blue foal on the head as it landed. Rainbow Dash winced at this before she shakily sat up. Her lip quivered a bit as tears began to well up in her magenta eyes. “Mayday mayday!” Pinkie Pie squeaked into a walkie talkie. She held a pair of binoculars in her other hoof, having used them to get a better look at Rainbow Dash when she saw the pegasus’s collision with the apple tree. “Blue Falcon down!” She screeched. “I repeat! Blue Falcon down!” Meanwhile back at Sugarcube Corner, a lone walkie talkie sat on the countertop, along with none other than Gummy: Pinkie’s toothless alligator friend who she had recently entrusted with her second walkie talkie. The purple eyed alligator blinked idly as Pinkie’s high pitched voice came from the walkie talkie. “This is Pink Spy to Scale Leader. What are your orders?” The alligator simply did nothing in response, blinking his purple eyes occasionally. Pinkie Pie waited a moment before speaking through the walkie talkie once more, responding to the alligator’s silence. “Copy that,” came the pink pony’s voice through Gummy’s walkie talkie. “Pink Spy signing out. Over.” Pinkie lowered the walkie talkie from her ear, narrowing her eyes as she spoke to herself. “Time to initiate Stealth Mode.” … “All vright! Vwe gwot everwyfin’ vwe need?” Apple Bloom asked, her voice muffled by the snorkel that she had in her mouth. “Huh?” Scootaloo said, raising a brow. Apple Bloom spat out the snorkel, leaving it to hang at the side of her head since it was attached to the goggles that she wore. “Ah said ‘we got everythin’ we need?’” “Yep! Sure do!” Sweetie Belle replied, smiling as she pulled a saddlebag full of straw and twigs onto her back. “Alright then Crusaders!” Scootaloo said, stumbling over the flippers she wore on her hooves. “To the lake!” “Yeah! Cutie Mark Crusader Underwater Basket Weaving!” All three fillies declared as they all did a high hoof. And with that they set out down the dusty trail of Sweet Apple Acres, heading for the lake. “Oh, howdy Crusaders!” Applejack called, seeing the three fillies. “Whatchy’all up to today?” “Howdy there big sis!” Apple Bloom greeted. “We’re going to get our cutie marks in underwater basket weaving!” Sweetie Belle said, grinning as she wiggled her back to show off the saddlebags that she was carrying. Applejack raised an eyebrow at this, smiling still nevertheless as she chuckled. “Well alrighty then,” she said. “Just stay safe now, ya hear?” “Don’ worry sis,” Apple Bloom reassured. “We’re well prepared!” As she said this the yellow filly jutted out her neck to show off the snorkel and goggles she was wearing. Applejack chuckled. “Alrighty then, you three stay outta trouble.” “We will!” Apple Bloom called back as she and her two friends started down the trail again. Applejack just chuckled to herself before she began to push a wooden tub towards the orchard, going to start the harvest for the day. However she suddenly stopped when she heard a strange sound. After listening to the noise for a moment, Applejack realized what it was. However instead of providing clarity, this realization only confused the country mare more. The sound was no doubt the wailing of a young filly, or rather a foal. Applejack assumed it was a foal, as the wailing was still quite high pitched and nasally, sounding pretty young even for a filly. It reminded her of when she herself was a filly. How she was often woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of her newborn sister wailing. How she would often times help Granny Smith by trying to soothe the foal back to sleep. Still semi driven by her big sister instincts, Applejack set out to find the source of the wailing. It didn’t take long for her to trace the noise back to its culprit. The apple bucking pony got a small look of shock when she saw the winged blue foal on the ground, sitting in a mud puddle and crying. Her rainbow mane and tail were mostly covered in mud, almost hiding their color. Without hesitation, Applejack approached the foal and gently scooped her up. The feeling of holding a wailing foal was a familiar one for the country pony, and for a split second she thought of Apple Bloom as she hugged the crying pegasus gently. “Well hey there Sugar Cube,” she cooed, gently bouncing the winged foal a bit to help calm her down. Rainbow Dash’s cries slowly started to die down as she was soothed by her blonde maned friend. She looked up at Applejack with teary eyes, sniffling a bit still as the country mare gave a warm smile back at her. Applejack couldn’t help but feel a little proud of herself. It seemed that despite her little sister being not so little anymore, the country mare was still pretty good handling foals. “Aw, it’s okay now Pumpkin,” Applejack said. “How about we getcha all cleaned up. Then ah can ask Big Macintosh if he’d help me look for your parents.” With that the orange mare attempted to wipe some of the mud out from the blue foal’s mane, exposing its rainbow color. Applejack’s eyes went wide with surprise when she saw this, and she carefully wiped the mud from the foal’s tail, once again exposing the all too familiar rainbow color. “…Am ah goin’ crazy?” Applejack muttered to herself. “Ah swear this foal looks jus’ like-” “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight’s voice called out. Hearing this, Applejack turned to face her unicorn friend as she approached. “Oh, well howdy Twilight,” she began. “Actually ya came at a good time. Ah jus’ found this foal in the orchard all by her lonesome. Ah was jus’ about to wash the mud off of her when ah noticed that she looks jus’ like Rainbow Dash.” “That’s because she is Rainbow Dash,” Twilight replied, still catching her breath from all the running. Applejack just blinked, a dumbfounded look on her face. “Pardon?” She asked before she looked down at the foal in her hooves. Twilight gave a small sigh as she looked away from her friend. “It’s all my fault. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had agreed to help me with a research report on age spells for Princess Celestia. I thought that I wasn’t powerful enough to fully perform such a spell, but somehow I did. I ended up turning them both into foals with no way to turn them back…” The unicorn’s ears drooped a bit as she said this last sentence, and she lowered her head. After taking a moment to process all of this, Applejack put a hoof on her unicorn friend’s shoulder. “Tell ya what Twilight,” she said. “How about ah come with ya to the library. You look like you could use somepony’s help.” “Oh Applejack, I just couldn’t ask that of you,” Twilight said. “It’s alright Twilight,” Applejack replied. “Besides, ah know how to handle little foals like the back of mah hoof.” Twilight thought for a moment. She would hate to make Applejack have to babysit, however at the same time she knew that Spike wasn’t exactly the best with foals. And on top of that, the unicorn knew that she would have more trouble finding a counter spell if she had two foals on her hooves at the same time. With a small sigh, the purple unicorn gave a nod to her friend. “A-Alright,” she said. “Thank you Applejack.” Applejack smiled at her unicorn friend, giving a nod. “No problem Twilight. I’m always happy to help out mah friends.” With that, the two set off down the dirt trail of Sweet Apple Acres, heading back to the Ponyville library. “Pink Spy to Scale Leader,” Pinkie spoke through her walkie talkie. The energetic pony hid behind a tree, peeking her head out just enough so that she could watch as Twilight and Applejack were walking down the dirt trail. “Blue Falcon has been captured. Stealth mission is a success.” Suddenly the pink pony lowered her walkie talkie as she felt something. Looking up at her ears, she noticed them twitching a bit. Just as the pony took notice of this, her left eyelid fluttered a bit. And then lastly her back, left hoof went wobbly. After taking a mental note of these three events, Pinkie suddenly went wide eyed. And then in a flash she took off running. After all, her Pinkie sense had just given her an urgent message. > Foals Really Are a Laughing Matter > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “There!” Spike said, admiring his handy work. Fluttershy lay on her back, looking back up at the dragon curiously, a small towel tied sloppily around her waist into a makeshift diaper. “Huh, maybe this foal care stuff isn’t so hard after all,” the dragon said to himself, a small, confident smile on his face. “I’ve practically handled Fluttershy all by myself.” When Spike said this, Owlowiscious suddenly twisted his head around to face him, giving a hoot in his direction and flapping his wings out a bit. Spike rolled his eyes at this before giving a small shrug. “Okay so maybe I had a little help from you,” he said. With that, the owl spread his wings and flew back to his perch to return to his daytime slumber. Fluttershy got a small frown at this, waving her front hooves towards Owlowiscious and babbling a bit as she watched him fly to his perch. “Hey,” Spike called up to the owl. “Aren’t you gonna stay and help me?” Owlowiscious simply looked at the dragon with sleepy, narrowed eyes. Spike raised a brow in return. “Aw come on, I know you’re nocturnal but…” The dragon trailed off, frantically thinking of an argument that would convince his winged coworker to stay awake. “F-Fluttershy really likes you!” He said, motioning to the yellow foal. Despite the fact that Spike was using this fact as a means to convince Owlowiscious, it was still true nonetheless. The yellow foal in question was now sitting up, looking up at the owl with curious turquoise eyes. Owlowiscious turned his head to look at Fluttershy, hooting softly to her. The pegasus giggled happily at this, babbling back at the owl and eagerly reaching her front hooves for him. However she then let out a small, squeaky yawn. Spike saw this and let out a small sigh of relief. “Are you sleepy, Fluttershy?” He asked the pegasus, not really expecting any sort of response. Fluttershy just continued to coo and babble up at Owlowiscious. The owl on the other hand remained still on his perch, his eyes slowly closing as he let sleep overtake him. It was then that the unexpected happened, at least for Spike. Having had enough of birdwatching from afar, Fluttershy opened her tiny yellow wings and used them to slowly lift herself off of the ground. She wasn’t nearly as fast or agile as her rainbow maned friend, however with her foal mindset, Fluttershy was willing to do anything to get a closer view of Owlowiscious. “Oh not you too!” Spike cried, making a quick grab for the yellow foal. Unlike with Rainbow Dash, Spike was actually successful in catching Fluttershy, much to the baby pegasus’s dismay. Fluttershy’s look of wonder turned sour as she squirmed a bit in the dragon’s arms. “Please Fluttershy, can’t you take a nap for a little bit?” Spike asked, keeping ahold of the squirmy foal. Fluttershy’s only reply was a quiet whimper that slowly got louder. And for about the fifth time that day the dragon panicked internally as the foal in his arms began to sniffle. Twilight opened the door to the library, and she and Applejack walked in, Applejack still holding Rainbow Dash, who had fallen asleep during the walk. “I can’t begin to thank you enough for this, Applejack,” Twilight said, a small look of apology on her face. “Aw it’s nothin’ Twilight,” Applejack replied, giving her unicorn friend a sincere smile. “Now then, how about ah start a bath for Rainbow while you jus’ focus on findin’ a solution to all this.” Before Twilight could respond a loud wail suddenly echoed from upstairs, and within seconds Spike came running down the steps, holding a crying Fluttershy. “Thank Celestia you’re back Twilight!” The dragon said. “I-I need help with Fluttershy!” Seeing this, Applejack turned to Twilight. “Here, hold Rainbow for a sec please,” she said, before carefully passing the blue pegasus to her. With all of the sudden commotion, Rainbow Dash had woken up. She looked up at the purple unicorn that held her, her eyes still a bit heavy from her sleepiness. Applejack walked over to Spike and gently took Fluttershy from him. She held the wailing pegasus over her shoulder with one hoof, gently bouncing her as a means to soothe her. It was then that the southern mare noticed the towel that was sloppily tied around Fluttershy’s waist. “Now what in the hay did ya tie a towel around her for?” “I didn’t wanna have to clean up anymore puddles,” Spike replied, bluntly. Applejack got a small look of realization “Oh that’s right,” she said. “Ah forgot y’all probably don’ have any foal supplies.” She then sat on her rump and used her front hooves to cradle Fluttershy, who was still crying. “Shhh shh, no need to cry, Sugarcube,” Applejack said as she began to rock the yellow pegasus gently. To Twilight and Spike’s surprise, it didn’t take long for Fluttershy’s cries to be soothed into quiet whimpering and the occasional sniffle. The pink maned foal looked up at her apple bucking friend with teary eyes before burying her face into the pony’s orange coat. Applejack couldn’t help but smile at this as she patted her foal sized friend’s back gently. “How’s about ya nap with Rainbow for a bit huh?” “How did you get her to calm down so easily?” Spike asked. Applejack chuckled a bit at this. “Ah’m a big sis, Spike,” she said. “Ya think Granny Smith handled Apple Bloom all on her own? No way in Equestria Big Macintosh and ah were gonna jus’ leave all that work for her.” Twilight couldn’t help but smile at this. “Well we appreciate your help and skills,” she said. That was when Rainbow Dash began to whine, a pouty scowl appearing on her face as she squirmed in the unicorn’s hooves. Seeing this, Twilight hesitantly tried to mimic what Applejack had done with Fluttershy, sitting on her rump and rocking the blue pegasus with her front hooves. However this did nothing, as Rainbow Dash continued to pout, kicking her little hooves out unhappily. After taking one look at the pouting pegasus, Applejack bit her lip. “She’s feelin’ a little cranky,” she said. “Fussin’ over all the commotion from Fluttershy.” “W-What should I do?” Twilight asked, nervously trying to comfort her fussy friend. Applejack thought for a moment before replying. “Well when Apple Bloom was gettin’ cranky, ah’d usually feed her a warm bottle. It’d put her right to sleep. But since we can’t do that…” The pony trailed off, biting her lip once more as she tried to think of an alternative. After a bit she sighed. “Ah’m sorry Twilight. Ah guess ah’m a little rusty with foal care. Ah think the best thing we can do is to jus’ try to lull her back to sleep.” The pony thought for a moment before speaking again. “Can Fluttershy borrow your bed for a little while?” Twilight nodded in response before leading Applejack to her room and walking over to her bed. Spike followed behind. Quickly and carefully, Applejack tucked the sleeping yellow foal into Twilight’s bed. “Thank you kindly Twilight,” she said, before taking Rainbow Dash from the purple unicorn. “H-How are you gonna get her to go back to sleep?” Spike asked, watching as Applejack sat on her rump once more, cradling the fussy foal in her front hooves. “Ah don’ know,” Applejack said with a slightly uncertain frown. “A-Ah figure ah’ll jus’ comfort her for a little while.” With that she began to try rocking the whining, squirming blue foal. “Shhh, hush now Sugarcube,” she cooed. “No need to fuss. Jus’ rest your little head and drift off to dreamland.” The blue foal suddenly stopped squirming for a second, though not because of Applejack’s attempts to calm her. Instead Rainbow Dash got an odd look on her face before she absentmindedly spread her back hooves a tiny bit. Going wide eyed at this, the orange earth pony did the only thing she could think to do, and she held the foal away at hoof’s length. No quicker than Twilight had opened her mouth to question this did she get her answer. All three watched the relieved look appear on Rainbow Dash’s face as liquid began to trickle down her back hooves and onto the library floor. “O-Oh,” Twilight said, biting her lip a bit. Spike gave a huffed sigh. “I’ll go grab another towel…” He muttered, before he began to trudge down the stairs. Applejack couldn’t help but give a small chuckle, looking at the foal she held in her hooves. “Guess ah ain’t too rusty,” she said. “Ah still remember Apple Bloom makin’ that face once in a while before she’d need changed.” However the orange pony’s moment of humor was cut short when Rainbow Dash let out an unhappy wail, scowling and kicking her hooves out as she did. Not only was she cranky but now her back hooves were wet. Applejack’s ears flattened a bit nervously at this, and she tried her best to comfort the crying foal while still holding her at hoof’s length. “Shh, Rainbow it’s alright,” she said, trying her best to stay calm so that she wouldn’t upset the foal even more. It was no use either way however, as Rainbow Dash only cried louder. “W-What do we do?!” Twilight asked, looking at Applejack for help as she winced at the sound of Rainbow Dash’s wailing. “A-Ah don’ know!” Applejack replied. “B-But we gotta think fast or else-.” The southern pony was suddenly cut off by the wailing of a second foal. Her ears flattened in dismay as she and Twilight looked over to see that Fluttershy had been awoken by all of the noise, and she too was now wailing loudly. “O-Or else we’ll have two fussy foals…” Applejack said, finishing her sentence. Spike was just about to head back upstairs with a towel in hand when suddenly he heard a rather odd sounding knock at the door. The dragon gave a small groan at this, sighing as he approached the door. “What now?” He muttered, before answering it. Upon opening the door, Spike was nearly trampled by a bouncing pink blur as it zipped past him and towards the stairs. Stumbling back, the dragon saw that it was none other than Pinkie Pie. Though she was carrying a double saddlebag on her back and a bag in her mouth. “Sowwy Spike!” Pinkie said, her voice muffled by the bag handles she held with her teeth. “Foawlsitting emewgency!” And with that, the pink pony trotted up the steps at full speed. Spike stood up and went to follow after Pinkie, however he was once again stopped when he heard yet another knock from the door. This one was odd too however, as it was just a singular thud against the wooden door, rather than the standard two or three thuds that made up a typical knock. Once again, the dragon walked over and answered the door. Only this time he was greeted by somepony slower than Pinkie. Much slower. Tank the tortoise slowly glided past the dragon, his propeller buzzing softly as it led him up the stairs. Spike followed the tortoise. “Never fear! Your foalsitter friend Pinkie is here!” The pink pony exclaimed after setting her bags down. “P-Pinkie? How did you…?” Applejack asked. Pinkie just giggled before she started unpacking a bit of the contents of the saddlebags. “Well you see Applejack,” the pony began. “I had just finished running to Sweet Apple Acres with Twilight when my ears started to twitch! And then my left eyelid fluttered a bit, followed by my back hoof getting all wobbly! And I knew that my Pinkie senses were telling me that there was a foal related problem with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy at the library!” Applejack and Twilight were both dumbfounded at this. “You got all that information from your Pinkie sense?” Twilight asked. Pinkie just chuckled at this. “Well not all of it. Fluttershy had an order she was planning to pick up today at Sugarcube corner, and Rainbow Dash and I were planning to go pranking today,” she said as she retrieved two diapers, foal powder, and foal wipes from the saddlebags. “And since neither of them showed up, I just assumed that it involved them. Fluttershy’s pretty good with picking up orders on time, and Rainbow Dash wouldn’t miss a day of pranking for anything!” Pinkie then thought for a moment before speaking again. “Well, anything except for being turned into a foal it seems.” Before Twilight or Applejack could respond, Pinkie carefully took the wailing blue pegasus from the orange pony, holding her at hoof’s length when she noticed her back hooves were damp. “Uh oh, did widdle Dashie have an accident?” Pinkie cooed before she laid Rainbow Dash down on a changing mat she had rolled out. Rainbow Dash just continued to kick her hooves and cry. “Aw, look Dash! I brought you a friend!” Pinkie said. The blue pegasus’s cries suddenly stopped as a green, reptilian face looked down at her, smiling slowly at her. Rainbow Dash hiccupped a bit, looking up at her tortoise companion with tear filled magenta eyes. However she suddenly let out a giggly squeal of glee as Tank licked her cheek. Applejack smiled at this, however her smile suddenly faded before she looked over at Fluttershy, who was still wailing. “W-Well that takes care of Rainbow,” she said. “But what about Fluttershy?” Pinkie just smiled before she picked up the bag she had been carrying in her mouth. She skipped over to Twilight’s bed before promptly setting the bag down upon it so it faced Fluttershy. She then turned to look back at Applejack. “Don’t worry AJ,” she said. “I brought her a friend too!” After a couple seconds, movement suddenly came from the bag. And Pinkie just smiled as a small white rabbit hopped out of it. “Now how in tarnation did you convince Angel to get in that bag?” Applejack asked, a surprised look on her face. “Oh, that’s easy,” Pinkie said. “I just told him that Fluttershy was in a tough situation, and that she needed his help.” “And that worked?” Twilight asked, just as surprised as Applejack. Upon seeing the crying yellow foal in front of him, Angel’s jaw fell open in shock. However without a moment more of hesitation the white rabbit hopped over to his wailing caretaker and nuzzled at her side in an attempt to comfort her. There was no doubt that he recognized her even as a foal. Fluttershy’s cries were cut short when she felt the fluffy rabbit nuzzle against her. And upon seeing her rabbit companion, the yellow pegasus let out a squeal of joy before throwing her hooves around him and hugging him happily. All tears were forgotten as the winged foals were greeted by their pets. … “There we go, nice and snug,” Pinkie Pie said, after tucking Rainbow Dash into Twilight’s bed next to Fluttershy. The two foals lay fast asleep in the bed, both of their animal companions resting with them as they slept. “Well Pinkie Pie, ah gotta hand it to ya,” Applejack said. “You certainly know your way around foalsittin’.” Pinkie smiled at this comment. “Aw gee Applejack, it was nothing!” She said. “Well we appreciate it a lot either way,” Twilight said. Applejack nodded, smiling. Pinkie just giggled. “Well then, now that Rainbow and Flutters are clean, calm, and asleep, I’m kinda curious to know how they became foals in the first place,” she said. “I mean, I couldn’t become a foal even if I wanted to! Not that I have wanted to.” The pink pony thought for a moment before continuing. “Well actually there was this one time when I was watching the Cake twins that I thought I could better understand them if I was a foal myself. That was just a thought though.” Applejack looked to Twilight, waiting for her to answer Pinkie’s question. Twilight gave a small sigh before looking down a bit. “It’s a long story…” She said.