Chapter One: Foalsitting for Bookworms
“Shh Twilight you have to be quiet! We just now got them to sleep, and I think Mr. and Mrs. Cake are running out of flour,” Pinkie Pie whispered as she slowly backed out of the little foals’ bedroom. She gazed softly at the little baby unicorn Pumpkin Cake and her Pegasus brother Pound Cake asleep in their crib. The Cakes were off on another delivery, so naturally they requested Pinkie Pie to foalsit for them. This time, however, Twilight had asked if she could help out.
“I had just finished reading my book ‘Foalsitting: A Scientific Analysis of the Psyche of Toddlers’ and wanted to verify some of its data. Besides, I had the best foalsitter in all of Equestria, Princess Cadence, so I bet I know at least the basics already,” she had said in the matter-of-fact tone now seemingly common in Princess Celestia’s star pupil.
Pinkie happily agreed. Foalsitting was enjoyable enough for her, so watching the twins with a helping friend could only mean twice the fun. However, she had found that working with Twilight had been more troublesome than she had initially thought. Twilight followed everything by the book, down to the letter, but she had still not discovered the one crucial fact: Not every filly and colt respond the same way. There is no universal method to take care of an infant, each foal requiring special attention. While a book can give general advice tips, only by actually foalsitting would Twilight understand methods that the text could not convey.
Their day had been filled with cleaning up the misadventures of the two small foals. While they were now fairly accustomed to having Pinkie Pie around, the addition of Twilight caused the toddlers to act up a bit more than she was used to. It seemed reminiscent of the first time Pinkie watched over the twins. However, where Pinkie had eventually gained the foals trust and acceptance, the same could not be said for Twilight, who, when trying to replicate Pinkie’s standup comedy routine, could only conjure up a few not so pre-kindergarten jokes about the fascinating realm of botany and fauna related humor. Eventually, with the help of the old flour trick, Pinkie had been able to finally get little Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake to settle down and fall asleep.
The two mares slipped silently back into the main entrance of Sugarcube Corner where they breathed a sigh of relief.
“I just don’t know why it didn’t work,” Twilight remarked now that she could speak a little louder since they were out of earshot of the twins. “I tried everything the author suggested.”
“Oh Twilight, you can’t learn to foalsit with a book silly. You just need a super-awesome-fun-tabulous-splendific attitude, experience, and a knack for it, that’s all. The first time I babysat for the twins….is it babysat or babysit? Babysit, babysat, babysit, babysat, why is it called babysitting anyway? The baby’s not always sitting down that’s for sure….Oh! I know maybe if they’re….”
“Pinkie!” Twilight forcefully interjected stopping the pink mare from continuing her vocal self-discussion, “I just don’t get what you mean when you say ‘a knack.’ Is there something I’m missing?”
“Oh no no no, all I meant is that for some ponies it comes naturally and others just take longer to get used to the process. That’s all. I’m sure you’ll be a super-stupendous foalsitter like Cadence in no time!” she replied as she happily bounced throughout the room.
“I don’t know Pinkie, you just seem to understand them so well. I’m glad Mr. and Mrs. Cake chose you as their foalsitter,” Twilight sighed, “I don’t think I’d ever get the twins to like me as much as you.”
“Don’t be a frilly silly willy, of course they will!”
“I’m not so sure. Even if we switched bodies they’d be able to tell us apart immediately. I guess I’ll just have to read more into it later,” Twilight said reluctantly, although the thought of having something that she could read and then be able to actually utilize did make her rather excited.
Pinkie stopped bouncing and looked at Twilight, “What’d you say?” she inquired.
“Oh, just that I’ll find some more books on foalsitting when I get back to the library. I’m sure Spike will be able to help me find some and…”
Pinkie Pie cut her off, “No no, the thing about switching bodies. Could we do that? Oh I’d love to be you for a day. Hang on let me try my Twilight impression.” She paused and then tilted her head and spoke in Twilight’s ‘matter-of-fact-tone’:
“As you can see quantum levitation is achieved by suspending a superconducting disc above a set of permanent magnets.” Pinkie smiled, “oh oh did that sound okay? I mean I have no idea what I was saying but it sounded smart right? So how about switching bodies huh huh can we?”
Twilight was only slightly amused at her impression since the concept of quantum levitation did sound like something she’d have to look into. “No Pinkie, I’m sorry there’s no such magic that exists that allows two mares to switch bodies. Strange as that would be, I can see why it would be troublesome.”
“Aw, no fair. Can you imagine though? What if we tried that on like, everypony! Hehehe,” Pinkie said as her mind started to wander off into the realm of the hypothetical.
Twilight couldn’t help but smile at this idea. Imagining Pinkie Pie being a bookworm like herself was amusing enough, but Applejack trying to make dresses like Rarity or Rainbow Dash taking care of Fluttershy’s animals was too out of place for even Twilight to imagine. She said goodbye to Pinkie Pie, who was still bouncing around the room pondering the idea, and briskly trotted off back towards her library in order to find some books about foalsitting (as well as a few on quantum levitation) and then do her usual research long into the night.
