Good Clean Fun

Chapters

Muddying the Issue
Coming Clean
Bonus Ending: The Next Day
BONUS: Commentary

Muddying the Issue

“…And then she nearly gobbled up my backside!”

“Really? That’s crazy!” You reply. “I wish I could’ve been in Ponyville on Nightmare Night. It sounded like a lot of fun.”

“It sure was,” says your tan-coated friend with the patchy brown spots. “Don’t worry, I’m sure the next Nightmare Night will be a lot more fun. Maybe even twice as fun!” He stretches both of his forelegs to the sides to bring the point home.

“I sure hope so,” you respond, adding a couple chuckles to his enthusiasm.

Not a cloud hung in the sky as the two of you continued walking down the streets of Ponyville. You had spent most of the morning and afternoon playing and having fun with your friend Pipsqueak. What made today especially fun was that it happened to be Saturday. This meant not having your plot planted in a desk all day while you had to learn boring stuff like the multiplication table or what some old stallion did a really long time ago. No, today you are free from all that, and can do just about whatever you want on this wonderful day.

“So what do you want to do next?” You ask. There must still be a couple hours of daylight left.

“…erm, actually,” he starts up, looking at the sky to see where the sun is. “I need to get back home. My dad is holding a dinner for his new boss and wants me to be there to help impress him.” He turns back to you, giving you a sad face showing that he didn’t want to go. “Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” you sigh. You couldn’t be mad at Pipsqueak; parents could be the ultimate killjoys whenever they wanted, after all. “Same time tomorrow, then?”

“Of course!” he replies, his chipper voice already coming back. “Maybe we can play pirates and search for hidden gold again! That’s always fun!”

“Maybe,” you laugh. Pipsqueak sure liked anything to do with pirates. He even wore the same costume he had for Nightmare Night the last time you played his game.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you later,” he speaks up. You look around and notice that you had reached the street he lived on, which meant that your playdate had come to an end.

“Okay, catch you tomorrow!” you reply.

“Bye!” he calls out before turning around and walking off towards his house.

You stand there and wave until he gets about halfway to his house before you head off on your own. You sigh and turn off onto another street; you have no idea how to spend the rest of today. It’s a rare weekend that Ms. Cheerilee doesn’t assign any homework, even rarer still that the weather is so nice as well. You want to take advantage of it as much as you can, but with Pipsqueak unable to play, you’re not sure what else you could be doing outside.

Maybe I’ll just go home for the rest of the day, you think to yourself. After all, you have plenty of toys in your room to play with as well as several issues of The Magnificent Misadventures of the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well that you could read. You could also make yourself a quick snack or two before dinner time. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

Checking your surroundings, you turn and head off towards your home. As you walk, you notice that most of Ponyville’s citizens are out and about, talking to friends, selling goods out of a cart (like that nice orange mare who gave you a free apple when you first went there), or just going about their regular chores. You smile a little to yourself as you see everypony smile while they work and chat with hardly a care in the world.

When you had first moved from Witherton, you thought you would never adjust to life in Ponyville. Sure, it wasn’t that different, but you had friends and knew how things worked back in your home town. To be forced to give all of that up and live someplace where you didn’t know anypony was just plain crazy to you, but you had no choice. You remember your worries quite clearly. What if you couldn’t make any friends? What if nopony liked you? What if you became the newest pet of some super-mean bullies?

Fortunately for you, it turned out many of your fears were unfounded. It wasn’t even halfway into your first day of school when Pipsqueak offered to be your first new friend, an offer you gladly accepted. By the end of the week, you had finally gotten over your nervousness, and while you wouldn’t consider yourself the popular colt, you were able to at least have nice talks with the rest of the other students. Well, except for a few: Those two rich fillies who seem to have nothing nice to say to anyone else, for starters. Honestly, you never understood how having more money than somepony else automatically made them the better pony. And then there’s…

…No. Don’t start thinking about that one. You don’t want to ruin the rest of your day focusing on her. She might not even be mean to you, but that doesn’t mean she won’t rudely intrude on your thoughts for far longer than you’d like. No, best to ignore that filly and just get back to thinking about what you’re gonna snack on while you enjoy the further exploits of Ponyville’s favorite masked he-

“LOOK OUT!”

Your daydreaming immediately comes to an end at this shout. You frantically turn your head every which way to find the source, but there’s no way you’ll be able to in this chaos. Every pony all around you is screaming and running in every direction, obscuring your vision and making you unable to find whatever it is you’re supposed to be looking out for.

Just as quickly as they started running, all the ponies eventually scatter, leaving you in the middle of the street. You don’t spot anything down this part of the street, but you now notice a thunderous “splat” coming from behind you.

You turn around as quickly as you can, but it’s already too late. Whatever’s coming up is too close for you to dodge. The only thing you can make out is something huge and brown-colored barreling towards you before-

*SPLAT!*

The next thing you know, you can’t breathe or see a thing, and are tumbling around in… something. Whatever it is, it feels wet and gross, almost like…like…

You’re getting far too dizzy to focus now from both the lack of air and the spinning. If this doesn’t stop soon, you feel like you’re going to add some other gross liquids into this weird mess.

*CRAAAAAASH!*

Your trip inside the giant ball of something comes to a sudden end when it smacks into the side of a wall. All you know is that you’re now sitting down somewhere with your eyes firmly shut. You wait until the rest of Equestria stops spinning around your head before you dare open them, hoping to be in your bed after having a fever nightmare.

That hope is shattered when you do finally open your eyes. Apparently, whatever that had crashed into you rolled onto an empty street and collided with the back wall of a vacant building, scattering its contents in every direction.

You decide that checking your body for injuries would be a good idea. You give yourself a once-over and thankfully find nothing serious aside from a few sore spots. You are, however, nearly completely covered in…mud? Were you really picked up by a giant ball of mud? Just what - or who - in Equestria could be responsible for this?

“WOO-HOO! LET’S DO THAT AGAIN!”

There’s your answer.

Right as you hear this, you spot a filly-shaped mass emerge from a pile of mud, her orange coat and purple mane barely visible through her new muddy coating. You know this filly by the name of… Scootaloo, you think. You wouldn’t consider yourself a friend to her, but from what you’ve gathered about her at school, she was always a troublemaker of sorts, especially when she was with-

“SCOOTALOO, WHAT THE HAY WERE YA THINKIN’!?”

Right on cue, another filly pokes her head out of another mud pile, this one sporting a pale yellow coat and a bow as red as her mane if they weren’t covered in the brown substance. You also know this filly from school. Her name is Apple Bloom, one of the nicer kids you’ve met since moving here. A bit stubborn at times, but you were still on decent ground with her.

“Come on, Apple Bloom! You can’t tell me that wasn’t fun!”

“Are y’all crazy? Even ah thought this plan to get our cutie mark was just silly!”

“…what plan?”

“Wait…y’all mean ya weren’t even tryin’ to get a cutie mark!?” Apple Bloom isn’t sure whether to be shocked or angry at this point, judging by the look on her face.

“Well, of course I was trying to get a cutie mark!” retorts Scootaloo. “But who has time for plans? Earning a cutie mark is all about action, guts, getting dirty, and having a crazy amount of fun!”

“Then how were we supposed to get our cutie marks makin’ a big ball of mud?”

“I dunno.” the purple-maned pegasus shrugs. “But hey, nopony said our special talent couldn’t be making huge mud balls!”

At this, Apple Bloom smacks her hoof to her face, making you snicker a little bit. “Scootaloo…” she replies, making the anger in her voice very clear.

This argument goes on for at least another minute, with Apple Bloom getting madder and Scootaloo’s responses not helping matters. At this point, you’re kind of glad that they appear to have not noticed you in their bickering, which was now dangerously close to getting physical. Maybe it’d be best to sneak away while you still can before something really bad happens.

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?”

Oh no…

Neither of the two arguing fillies said this, and you know that they usually have adventures with a third filly. Even without this line of logic, you could never forget the identity of the sweet, caring voice that just called out in concern for you.

You turn your head and finally catch her galloping towards you: The white unicorn filly was also covered nearly head to hoof in dirt, her curly purple and pink mane all messed up, and her light green eyes opened wide in worry. Unlike the other two crusaders, you know this filly’s name all too well.

“S-Sweetie Belle…”

“We’re so sorry!” She finally says once she reaches you. She frantically looks over your body to make sure you’re okay. “Are you alright? We didn’t hurt you too badly, did we?”

“U-um, n-no, I’m…okay,” you squeak out as if a unicorn had magically turned the volume down on your voice.

“You sure?” she keeps going, “I mean, maybe the mud’s hiding some of your injuries or someth-“

“-and at least I’m not the one who messed around with Zecora’s potions to try and force a cutie mark! Now THAT was just plain dumb!”

“Well, maybe if ya didn’t spend so much time chasin’ after Rainbow Dash, ya’d already have yer cutie mark!”

“You say one more word about Rainbow Dash, and I’ll stuff my hoof down your throat!”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo’s arguing finally grows loud enough to drown out your conversation. You’re not sure whether to be scared or thankful that they’ve distracted Sweetie from examining you more than your doctor.

“Excuse me for a second,” Sweetie calmly says to you before turning to her friends. “Hey, girls!”

“WHAT!?”

Like clockwork, the other two Crusaders stop their bickering and turn towards her, directing their glares from each other to her. Their glares immediately turn into shock when they finally take note of a young colt covered in mud and still in slight shock.

“Oh, horse-apples!” Scootaloo curses. You hear Sweetie gasp a little at her friend’s sudden strong language while her comrades quickly run up to join you.

“Y’all aren’t too hurt, are ya?” asks Apple Bloom, her anger fully replaced with worry.

“N-no, I’m okay, just…shook up, is all,” you reply. That mysterious unicorn wizard must have turned up your voice volume a little.

“Well, that’s a relief,” says Scootaloo, “I, uh…I guess rolling a giant ball of mud through town to get my cutie mark wasn’t such a hot idea after all.” She rubs the back of her head with her hoof as she speaks. Somehow, you feel that apologies are not her forte.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, too,” Apple Bloom chimes in, “Ah shoulda been checking if anypony was hurt instead of arguin’ with Scootaloo.”

“I hope you’re not too mad at us,” says Sweetie Belle, giving an apologetic face that seems to twist your insides into a knot.

“It’s o-okay…I’m not really mad,” you force out at all three of them. You try to give a warm smile, but probably look like you’re hiding something instead.

“So…what do we all do now?” Apple Bloom asks as she looks around the street. It’s been a few minutes, but there still doesn’t seem to be an adult in sight. You suppose that weirder things must have happened to this town for nopony to give concern to a mudball rolling through the streets after it’s over.

“I say we get out of here before some grown-ups show up and make us clean this mess up,” suggests Scootaloo.

“Wouldn’t that be kinda mean?” Sweetie Belle pipes up.

“Do you wanna clean up this whole street?” Scootaloo retorts, pointing her forehoof down the rest of the street. Deep down, you had a feeling you would agree with Scootaloo if you helped her roll the ball into town.

“Well, it is a pretty big mess…” says Sweetie.

“Good, then it’s settled!” Scootaloo interrupts, not letting her friend finish her thought. “Let’s all split up and get cleaned up before anyone finds out we caused this! Later!”

Before anyone else could say anything, Scootaloo leaps out of her mud pile and runs off, leaving a trail of muddy hoof-prints. You somehow doubt she’ll get very far before she is busted.

“Sooooo…” Sweetie starts up again, turning to Apple Bloom, “Are you going to stick around and clean up?”

“Well, ah would, normally,” she replies, looking around to assess the damage or maybe find all the possible exits, “but I’m kinda tired, and Scootaloo’s the one who pushed the ball into town, so ah think it’s her mess to clean up. Ah’m just gonna get goin’ and wash myself off before anypony starts askin’ questions.”

With this, Apple Bloom gets up and turns to leave in a different direction than her orange-coated friend. “Ah guess Ah’ll see ya tomorrow, Sweetie Belle. Ah’ll make sure to have a plan that doesn’t involve us makin’ a huge mess.”

“Bye, Apple Bloom!” Sweetie cheerfully cries to her friend as she leaves, waving her limb even as she rounds a corner.

It occurs to you that maybe now would be a good time to try and sneak away before Sweetie turns around and tries talking to you again. As quietly as you can, you get up and slowly tip-hoof towards an alley where you can round the corner and disappear-

“Hey, wait!”

So much for that.

Sweetie Belle’s voice stops you dead in your tracks. You feel your heart climb into your neck as you hear her hooves clop along the ground, the volume for both growing as she steadily nears you.

“You’re not going to go home like that, are you?” She asks once she’s almost right behind you.

“Um… maybe?” You squeak again. Stupid wizard, you silently curse to yourself.

“Oh… well, I don’t think your mom will be too happy to see you all muddy like that.”

“Um…well, I, uh, guess so…” you reply. You don’t want to admit it, but she has a point. You had already taken a bath this morning, and your mother happened to be a neat freak of sorts. You aren’t looking forward to the stern talking-to you’re sure to get.

“Well,” Sweetie continues, “It’s just that… I don’t want you to get in trouble for something we did. We already took you for a pretty bumpy ride.”

Her voice trails off. You continue staring at the road ahead of you, not daring to turn around and face her. Whatever this filly is thinking, you have a bad feeling you’re not gonna like it.

“You could take a bath at my house!”

You wish you were wrong.

“N-no, that’s okay!” you blurt out, trying and failing to make your legs move again. “I, uh, I’ll be fine…”

“You sure?” she presses on, “It’s the least I could do for getting you into our mess.”

“Um, I, it’s just, uh…” you stammer, keeping your head turned away from her.

“Pretty please?” she asks again, “I just want to help.”

Your only response is further stammering. What a time for your voice to fail you…

You jump a little when you feel a soft, dirty hoof press onto your back.

“Pleeeeeease?” Sweetie begs in a way that only fillies can. Against your better judgment, you turn your head behind you to meet her gaze.

What little resolve you had instantly crumbles as you stare into her eyes. Her pretty green irises have grown nearly as wide as her eyes are open, and they shimmer in the bright sunlight. There’s no way you could turn this face down; to do so would be a crime punishable by banishment to the moon, or at least that’s how you feel.

“O…okay,” you sigh, lowering your head in a defeated manner.

“Great!” Sweetie exclaims, her soulful look immediately replaced by a big smile. “The Carousel Boutique’s only a short walk from here. My sister’s got a whole bunch of shampoos and stuff that’ll get you cleaned right up!”

She lets go of your withers and runs in front of you, presumably in the general direction of the Boutique.

“Come on! That mud’s gonna dry up if you don’t hurry!” she calls to you.

With an incredible amount of willpower, you force your forelimb to lift off the ground and set itself down a few inches from where it originally was. Channeling all the drive in your body, you proceed to do the same to the rest of your legs until you find yourself walking again, directly behind the marshmallow-white filly as she leads you to what you hope will be a quick, private clean-up and a hasty retreat back home.

*******************************

How does she do this to me?

You’ve been trying to answer this question for quite some time now, and not just on the way to the Carousel Boutique. Ever since you first laid eyes on Sweetie on your first day at school, you always seemed to freeze up at the sight of her. No matter how many times you tried, you could never force yourself to talk like you normally would around your other friends whenever she was near. It always got worse whenever she was the one who tried to talk to you, always offering you to join her friends on another wild adventure. You could never accept her offers, though; it was like your insides couldn’t stand to see her and started twisting up to tell you to get away from her.

The strangest thing was you almost always kept staring at her anyway, like there was just something... good? Bad? Horrible? You have no idea, yet there was something about her that just demanded your attention. You had nearly driven yourself crazy trying to figure this out, but the only other pony you dared to talk to about it was Pipsqueak, and he proved just as clueless.

“Here we are!” Sweetie suddenly shouts, your concentration proving no match to her lovely voice.

It’s at this point that you take note of a large and lavishly-decorated purple building in the shape of a carousel. You know this place to be the Carousel Boutique, Ponyville’s go-to stop for everyone’s clothing and fashion needs. It’s a store you wouldn’t be caught dead inside on any regular day - you are a colt, after all. Gotta keep up appearances! - but there’s no way you can turn back now.

Thankfully, Sweetie leads you to the back of the store, where her sister’s living quarters are. This means you have less chance of being spotted by someone you know. You would definitely have to fake being sick on the next school day if that happened.

“Okay, now we gotta be real quiet when we go in,” Sweetie speaks up as the two of near the back door.

“Um, why?” you talk for the first time since you agreed to let her help you.

“Because,” she hesitantly explains, “My sister really doesn’t like it when I get dirty and track mud into her house. We just gotta take our baths real quick and clean up our mess before-“

“SWEETIE BELLE!”

You jump and take note of a few birds flying away in panic as this voice booms from out of nowhere. You nervously look around before you discover the voice’s source: looking out of a window on the second floor is a grown mare with the same white coat as Sweetie, her mane wrapped up in a towel and her coat shimmering in the sunlight.

“Nevermind,” Sweetie sighs like she was told she couldn’t play with her dolls today.

“Not another step, young lady!” The older mare calls out before bolting out of sight a mere second later. You hear the sound of hooves rushing down a flight of stairs before the door flings open and the mare stands before you, looking way more shocked than she should be.

“Sweetie, look at you!” She speaks when she finds her voice again. “What in Equestria did you get up to?”

“Nothing that I don’t normally get up to?” she replies with a cute look on her face.

“Sweetie, you already had a bath today!” her sister exclaims, “And your mane was so clean and proper, too.”

“But, Rarity, I-“

“No, no ‘buts’, young lady! You’re going to march right back upstairs and take another bath. You know our parents are coming to take you home tonight, and I simply can’t have you looking like you were playing in Applejack’s pig pens all day!”

"Okay,” Sweetie grumbles while lowering her head. “But…my friend needs a bath too!” she suddenly continues, lifting her head back up to her sister.

Finally noticing you’re there, Rarity looks at you and sees that you’re just as muddy as her younger sister.

“Err,” she winces in disgust, “Can’t he just take a bath at his own house?”

“Well, it’s kind of our fault that he’s so dirty right now,” Sweetie explains. “I just didn’t want his parents to be mad at him because of us.”

“Sweetie, I just don’t think it’d be a good idea-“

“Pleeeeease?” Sweetie interjects, using the same soulful gaze that got you just a few minutes ago.

It seems not even a grown-up can stand up to that face. Rarity tries to for about a second, but you see her expression crumble into a sad frown, and then into a soft smile. “Oh fine,” she relents, “I suppose he can clean up here.”

“Hooray!” Sweetie shouts. “Thank you so much, big sister!”

“I don’t think I could turn down a pony that needed a good cleaning, anyway,” she remarks, “But you both are going straight to the bath, and then he has to go right home. I’m afraid I can’t have two younglings running about my shop while I work on filling all these orders.”

“We’ll be cleaned up before you know it!” Sweetie says as she starts to walk into the Boutique. She only takes a single step before her sister stops her again.

“Ah-bup-bup! Hooves, please,” Rarity asks. Sweetie complies, presenting her forelegs to her older sister.

Without warning, the towel upon Rarity’s head unwraps itself and moves down to Sweetie’s level, revealing her horn and deep violet mane. Now free from the towel, her mane falls to both sides of her head, hanging straight down and still with a little bit of moisture from the bath she had just got done taking. Working her magic, Rarity wipes off her little sister’s hooves with the towel, cleaning the mud off them so as not to leave a dirty trail in her house.

“Okay, your turn,” she calls to you once Sweetie’s hooves are passably clean. You nervously lift your legs into the air and the towel immediately goes to work, firmly brushing each of your hooves to get all the dirt off them. It’s a bit rougher than you would have liked, but she gets the job done, leaving your hooves clean enough to walk into a fancy Canterlot ballroom if you needed to.

“Alright,” Rarity says as she holds the dirty towel in front of her. “Go right upstairs and into the bathroom, you two. I want you both spic and span as fast as you can!”

Author's Note

12/10/12 - Don't mind me, just fixing up the grammar in a few places.

Coming Clean

A few minutes pass, and you now find yourself inside Rarity’s bathroom, which was just as frilly as the rest of the Boutique. Rarity had taken it upon herself to magically scrub as much mud as she could off both you and Sweetie before she dared to let you get her bathtub dirty. Truth be told, she was a bit too thorough; aside from a patchy spot here and there, yours and Sweetie’s coat and mane were almost totally cleaned off now. Despite this, she still insisted that you both still take a bath to make sure you were, in her own words, “as clean and pristine as you can be!”

“That should do it,” Rarity declares as the princess-sized tub finally fills up to a good enough height for younglings to bathe in, shutting the faucet off with her magic. “Alright, time to get in,” she turns to the two of you, her unkempt long mane swishing a little at the motion.

“Uh, are you talking to me or him?” Sweetie asks, taking the question right out of your mouth.

“Oh, I probably should have mentioned this at first, silly me,” Rarity responds, “I’m afraid you’ll both have to take your bath at the same time.”

“Wuh-wuh-what!?” You blurt out far louder than you expect, causing the two mares in the room to give you weird looks. Now you’re scared. It was bad enough that you have to take a bath where Sweetie lives, but to take one at the same time and place as her? You can already feel the butterflies in your stomach fluttering like crazy.

“Well, I’m terribly sorry, young colt, but I’m afraid I used up a tad more hot water than I normally do for my regular weekend relaxation bath,” Rarity explains. “There’s just not enough left for you two to have separate baths.”

“Well, that’s okay,” chimes in Sweetie, “I take baths with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo all the time. It’s a lot of fun to play in the water!”

“Indeed, I’m usually the one who gives them the baths,” Rarity remarks, “Now both of you hurry up and get in. That water’s not going to stay warm forever, you know.”

You freeze in place, but Sweetie wastes no time. Climbing onto a set of steps made for foals to reach the tub (you know this because you still have to use a set at home), she lifts a limb over the edge and carefully drops it in. The water must not be too hot, as her leg keeps going with no hesitation. In no time, she’s in the bath, already settling in at the far end of the tub.

“Hey, this feels great,” says Sweetie. She turns to you and notices that you haven’t budged an inch. “Come on in! The water’s really nice!”

“I-If you say so,” you mumble.

Using an excruciating amount of willpower, you finally force your body to start climbing the steps, but your drive evaporates once you reach the final step. Instead, you stare into the tub, trying to analyze everything but the filly already occupying it. The sparkly clear water shines in the sunlight let in through a small round window, and a layer of bright pink bubbles (specially requested by Sweetie) idly drifts about, disturbed only by the waves caused by the white filly herself as she playfully gathers them up for… something.

“Now’s not the time to be shy, little one,” you hear Rarity’s voice behind you. “The sooner you get in, the sooner you can get cleaned up and be on your way.”

Gulping audibly, you stare at the other part of the foal staircase, the part submerged within the tub itself for an easy step down. You carefully dangle a limb over the tub as if it was filled with hot lava and not warm water. Taking a breath, you lower your hoof into the water, prepared to immediately withdraw it if it’s too hot.

…Hey, this isn’t bad at all! you think as your hoof easily slides down onto the step. The water is the perfect temperature; it warms you right up without being too hot. Not only that, but you can feel a nice ticklish feeling on your leg courtesy of the bath salts Rarity added while the tub was filling up.

You can’t wait to get the rest of you inside the tub, and you don’t. Going much faster than before, you climb down the steps and get everything up to your withers wet in that wonderful water. Finding a nice corner, you sit on your backside and let the water relax your nervous mind. You’re even starting to forget why you were so worried in the first place.

“I say, old chap! Thank you so kindly for visiting our fancy bath!”

Oh yeah, that’s why.

You turn to Sweetie and nearly gawk at the sight: she had gathered up some of the bubbles and somehow crafted a soapy handlebar moustache across her snout. She had even closed one of her eyes to try and look like she was wearing a monocle.

“Hee hee hee…ha!” She starts to giggle, but instead winces and scrunches up her face. You can’t tell if she’s still just playing around or something serious just came up.

“Ha…ah…HA-CHOO!” she sneezes, sending her soap-stache flying everywhere. Once she gets control of her body again, she rubs her snout with her hoof while she lets out a little groan.

“A-are you alright?” You ask with a bit more concern than you would expect.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she replies with a little nasal twinge. “I got a bubble in my snout, that’s all. Still, that was kinda funny, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” you nervously reply. Come to think of it, her act was kinda funny. Maybe even a little…cute? Is that what this feeling is? Can you even still call yourself a colt if you do find her soap moustache c…the “c” word?

“Alright, you two,” Rarity chimes in while she magically lifts the staircase out of the tub and sets it aside, effectively cutting off all your escape routes. “Time to get washed up.”

“Aww, can’t we play for a little while?” Sweetie asks.

“Sweetie, your friend’s parents will probably be worried sick if we keep him here for too long. It’s for the better if we send him on his way as quick he can. We don’t want the Equestrian guard to storm around town thinking we’d foalnapped him, do we?”

“Foalnapped!?” shouts a scared Sweetie. “B-but I was only trying to help! I didn’t mean to cause so much trouble! I don’t wanna be banished! I’ll never get my cutie mark on the moon!”

“Sweetie, calm down!” Rarity shouts back, gingerly grabbing her wide-eyed sister’s shoulders. “I was just joking. We all know you mean well, dear.”

“You mean I’m not gonna be banished?”

“I’m sure we could work out something with the Princesses. Maybe just make you spend a day or two in your room. At least you’d have a much harder time getting dirty that way.” Rarity giggles like one of those high-society mares you’ve seen in Witherton a couple times.

The two of you stare blankly at the older mare in the room. If she was making a joke there, neither of you got it.

“…erm, yes, well,” Rarity continues, thankfully breaking the awkward silence. “In any case, you needn’t worry about a thing, as I will personally supervise your bath time!”

“Uh, I think we can clean ourselves,” replies a confused Sweetie Belle. You’re glad she doesn’t notice you letting out a sigh of relief.

“I suppose you do, but this is to make sure you’re both the cleanest you can be in the quickest time. I promise to watch over and keep you two on track for your entire bath!” Rarity strikes a dramatically determined pose as she finishes.

“Just stop it! Stop being so selfless, so gracious, so well-meaning, so…AMAZING!”

“MY SOAP!” Rarity gasps in surprise as these words come from outside the bathroom before she remembers who else is in the room. “Er, that is, um … someone’s at the door! Yes, it’s the, um, deliverycolt here to bring me my, er, fancy imported soap! I’ll just, um, go talk to them real quick and see what they have to confess…um, say! Be right back!” With that, Rarity turns and bolts out the room, her long wet mane flowing nearly parallel to the ground.

You stare out the door in silence, not quite sure if you can believe in the older mare. Then again, you’re not quite sure you can believe in anything at the rate this day is going.

“She’ll be gone for a while.”

Why does Sweetie keep having to remind you of her presence?

“Um, why?” you ask.

“She’s not really talking to a deliverycolt. She bought one of those weird magic box thingies a few weeks back. She really likes to watch those shows where all the grown-ups go around kissing and yelling at each other. I think they do more stuff than that, but she always kicks me out of her room when I try to watch.”

“Aw, that stinks,” you reply.

“Eh, I don’t really like those shows, anyway. I hope I never grow up to be one of those kinds of mares,” says Sweetie. Since your family also owns a magic box, you know what kind of show she’s talking about. It still baffles you as to how grown-ups can watch that boring stuff when there are much better shows like Pony Rangers and Spikeball X.

“I hope you don’t, either,” you mumble.

“Huh?”

“N-nothing!” you speak in the loudest volume you’ve ever spoken to Sweetie while shifting your gaze to the water. Did you really just say that? More importantly, did you really mean it?

“So, what do you want to do?” pipes up Sweetie.

“Huh?” you perk up and turn to face Sweetie again. Her green eyes seem to be closer than they were before. Had she moved down the tub while you weren’t paying attention?

“You know, while we’re in the bath? I know some fun games we could play while Rarity’s not here. We could blow bubbles or pretend we’re pirates, or even do something else if you’d like. There’s a bunch of things we can do before we have to get clean.”

“Maybe we could just clean ourselves up?” you nervously suggest. Anything to get yourself out of there as fast as you can.

“Really?” Sweetie sighs. “You don’t want to play a little first?”

“Well, I, uh, it’s just, erm...” you try to think of an excuse, but nothing comes to mind.

“I mean, I understand if you need to go home soon,” Sweetie continues, her voice drooping a bit. “I don’t want your mom to get mad because of me.”

“…That’s not it.”

“It’s not?” Sweetie gives a puzzled look at you.

Gah, stupid brain! you silently curse yourself. Why did you say that? What’s wrong with you? You can’t even lie to a filly you can’t stand to be around to get yourself out of hot water? Did you really just make a joke about being in hot water while you’re taking a bath?

“I...um, that is, I don’t have to be home for a while,” you continue your confession anyway as if you were no longer in control of your actions. “My parents aren’t expecting me to be home until sundown. They think I’m still hanging out with m-my friend Pip…” you finish your statement with a small squeak as your nervousness reaches an all-time high.

“Oh, I see…” Sweetie replies. If you hadn’t turned away from her as you spoke, you would have seen her look down into the tub with a frown on her face.

Once again, silence falls into the bathroom, the only noises being the swishing of bathwater and the sounds of angry ponies on the magic box arguing over something about money.

“Can I ask you something?”

Sweetie finally breaks the silence with a question that frightens you. There must be at least a million things that could happen with this question, and you wager most of them will end badly for you. Unfortunately, you have no way out of this. Well, you could leap out of the tub and run away, but your nervousness and the soothing bath water have turned your hindlegs into mush.

“Um…sure?” you say, reluctantly accepting whatever fate throws at you.

"Is it me?”

“Is…what?” you confusedly reply. You didn’t expect this to be her question.

“Am I doing something wrong?” Sweetie continues, her face gradually getting sadder. “I mean, I know we got you all dirty and all, but…did I do something to you?”

“Wuh-what do you mean?”

“I mean…whenever I try to talk to you, you always get real quiet and try to go somewhere else. I thought you were just shy, but then I saw you having fun with Pipsqueak and talking with everyone else in class just fine…”

“S-Sweetie?” you ask as you see her eyes drooping.

“And then the mudball scooped you up, and I thought that maybe if I got you cleaned up, you would want to talk to me, but you still won’t…”

“Huh?” You have never felt a stronger need to figure out how a girl thinks than you do now.

“I...I don’t mean to be a pain in the flank. I just…think you’re…nice, and maybe you’d want another friend, but I…I understand if you don’t l-like me…”

Her confession stops here. Instead of further explaining herself, Sweetie lets her head drop towards the water. Your insides twist around even harder, rendering you unable to speak or even dare to move. All you can do is sit there and watch Sweetie as she continues looking straight down into the water, the only noises she makes being the occasional sniff.

The longer you watch, the worse you feel on the inside. Since meeting her, all you had wanted was for her to leave you alone so you would stop feeling so weird. Now, it looks like you’re finally about to get your wish: Sweetie might not want to talk to you again after this bath, and you can finally be free…

“Stop.”

But it’s not worth it.

“Huh?” Sweetie perks up, looking back at you. It’s at this point you notice her bright green eyes are starting to water. It’s enough to send another pang of discomfort in your stomach, but you can’t stop now. You have to set things right.

“Sweetie,” you force yourself to talk through a twisted stomach and a lump in your throat. “It’s not your fault. It’s... it’s me.”

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Uh, well...” you falter for a second, and then slowly piece your words together. “You’re a very nice pony, and… really sweet.” you feel some warmth enter your cheeks as you talk, and notice the same happening to her.

“It’s just that…” you continue, “when I look at you, all these weird things start happening. I get this, um, funny feeling in my stomach. It’s like it twists into a bunch of knots, and I can’t talk no matter hard how I try. I… I can’t stand it when that happens, so that’s why I tried to avoid you all those times.”

“Really?”

“I’m sorry if you thought I didn’t like you, Sweetie…I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings…”

You let your head fall in shame as your confession comes to an end. You had done it. You had finally cleared the air with Sweetie and told her the one thing you never wanted to tell her. You are now completely vulnerable to her, helpless against however she decides to react to this revelation.

“Is that all?”

“Huh?” You look at her quizzically. You had not guessed her to react like that.

“Well, that’s okay,” Sweetie calmly replies, her frown already turning into a soft grin. “It doesn’t mean anything bad.”

“Wait… you know what this means?” you say in surprise.

“Well, yeah. I felt something that was kind of the same thing a while ago. It was like there was a bunch of butterflies in my belly, so I asked my sister about it to see if there was something wrong with me.”

“R-really? What did she say?” you eagerly ask.

“She told me that when you start feeling like that around someone, it means you really like them. I was so glad she told me it wasn’t something to worry about. I thought I had swallowed some caterpillars at first!”

“Wait…” you reply, trying to piece together her story in a way that hopefully didn’t mean what you think it means. No, not Sweetie somehow eating a bunch of caterpillars without knowing it. The other thing. “When did you start feeling that way?”

“The same day you started going to our school,” she replies casually.

You’d let your jaw hit the ground if you weren’t in a tub. You don’t even need to ask the next question to know where this is going, but you can’t stop yourself.

“So…so does that mean…?”

“Yep!” interjects Sweetie in an adorable grin. Just as quickly as it appeared, however, her big smile grows soft and the shiny white coat on her face takes on a cute shade of pink. “I…I really like you, and…”

She stops talking for just a second, instead deciding to raise a foreleg out of the water and extend it towards you.

“I…I want to be your friend.”

You gulp audibly as you stare at the hoof pointed in your direction. This is it: the worst possible thing that could have happened today out of all the worst possible things. Sweetie Belle is offering you to be friends with her, to join her on wild quests to get your cutie marks, to spend time with her as the two of you play games, have fun, talk about what weird stuff the grown-ups are getting up to, share secrets that nopony else knows about, get dirty and possibly take more baths together, and who knows what else. It’s a thought that normally twists your stomach about like a pretzel…

So why is your belly not bothering you? In fact, why does it feel like a great weight has been lifted off you instead? Why are you feeling a smile creep onto your face? Why, it’s almost as if…

Oh.

Letting that smile come through in full bloom, you reach up with a forelimb of your own and guide it towards her hoof, delicately lining yours up with hers. It is perhaps the softest hoof you have ever felt, so much so that you could almost swear yours would sink into hers if you pushed hard enough.

“Sweetie, I…I want to be your friend, too,” You give her the most honest truth you could ever tell.

“R-really?” she asks, her grin growing wider and her eyes starting to shimmer again. “You promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly,” you sincerely quote that weird pink pony that runs the sweet shop. It sounded silly to you at first, but you could think of no better words to say at this moment.

“HOORAY!” suddenly shouts Sweetie, causing you to jump back a little. “A FOURTH CUTIE MARK CRUSADER!”

“Um, yeah, fourth crusader,” you mumble as your heart-rate slows down to something manageable. You quickly look towards the door to see if her sister happened to hear that outburst. Fortunately for you, you don’t hear anything to confirm your fears. “So what do we do now?” you continue as you turn back to Sweetie.

“Hmm…” Sweetie looks away to think for a second before returning to you. “Well, I know something that some friends who really like each other do. Maybe we could try that?”

“Okay…but what is it?” you ask with a hint of worry in your voice.

“Well, it’s um…” Sweetie mumbles a little, her eyes shifting away for a second. “It’s… something that my sister probably wouldn’t like to see us doing.”

“Well, are you sure we should do it, then?” you ask out of concern. You don’t want Sweetie to get in trouble because of you.

“It’ll be okay,” she smiles. “We just have to be real quiet. Besides, I hear it’s really really fun if you do it just right and if you really like the pony you’re doing it with.”

“Uh, okay. If you say so," you slowly and nervously reply. You have no idea what’s going on, but you’re scared, and maybe a little excited, to find out.

“Soooo, can you close your eyes?” Sweetie coyly suggests.

“M-my eyes? What for?”

“Um, you’ll see,” is all that Sweetie replies.

You don’t know what to do at first, but eventually you decide to put your trust in Sweetie. You haven’t found any reason not to trust her, after all.

You shut your eyes and wait for her to do whatever it is she’s going to do. The seconds pass by like minutes as you sit there with no idea of what’s going to happen to next. You hear and feel the lovely warm water swish around you as the other pony occupying the tub shifts about. For a second, you have the strange feeling that she is now only inches away from you-

*SPLASH!*

You flinch as you feel a bunch of water smack you in the face. Shaking the stray drops off your mane, you open your eyes to find Sweetie snickering uncontrollably, her eyes closed in laughter.

“Splash fight!” she declares when she finally gains control of her voice again. Before you can react, she pushes her hooves into the water and throws them back up, sending another cascade of water straight into your face.

“H-hey, no fair!” you try to say between laughs. For someone named Sweetie Belle, she sure could play dirty when she wanted to. Well, you can’t just sit here and let her win this little game, that’s for sure.

You wait until the deluge of water stops to make your move. Once you finally spot an opening in the form of Sweetie succumbing to a giggling fit, you quickly dunk your hooves deep into the water and throw them upwards. This brings up a tidal wave that catches Sweetie completely off-guard, covering the last dry spots on her body in warm, soapy water.

Her twin-colored mane now sticks to her face, covering her eyes like a dog with shaggy hair. She shakes her head all about to get her hair out of her face, whipping it around and sending fat water droplets everywhere.

“Nice shot, hehe!” says Sweetie when she can see again, “but I’ll get you yet!” Wasting no time, Sweetie prepares to send another wave of water your way, and you decide to get ready to retaliate.

Thus begins a friendly war of splashes between you and General Sweetie. The two of you settle into a rhythm of throwing your legs up to create big waves, covering your faces to block said waves, and cheerfully laughing the entire time. You both get so focused on your fun game that you don’t even notice how much water you’re getting all over the bathroom.

"Alright, alright, settle down, you two!”

You also don’t notice her older sister, still sporting a long damp mane, finally returning to the bathroom.

“Oh! Um,sorry, Miss Rarity,” you say bashfully, finally noticing how wet the entire room has gotten from your playing.

“Oh, it’s quite alright, little one,” she replies, “Sweetie and her friends have made worse messes in here, I suppose.”

You look over to Sweetie, who happens to be carrying an adorably sheepish smile right now. “Cutie Mark Crusader splash fights get kinda big,” she coyly admits, her hoof rubbing the back of her head, “and involve things other than water.”

You hear Rarity give that strange ladylike giggle in her throat before speaking again. “In any case, I do apologize for my disappearance. Turned out it was just a rerun...er, a wrong order! Yes, I, uh, had to sort things out with the deliverycolt. My, um, shampoos will arrive a few days from now.”

Your focus on Rarity causes you to miss Sweetie rolling her eyes at her older sister’s obvious fib.

“Anyways,” Rarity continues, “It’s time for you two to get yourselves cleaned up, and just to make sure you two are extra pristine, I will personally do the washing myself.” As she speaks, she magically lifts up a fancy washing poofball and a bottle of shampoo while carrying a grin on her face that makes you feel more worried than you should about getting cleaned off.

“Now let’s get you two washed up!”

*******************************

And you thought you were clean after the pre-bath scrubbing.

Just like before, Rarity was a bit more thorough in her cleaning than you would have preferred. You’re so clean that you swear your coat is giving off a natural glow right now. She had even combed and brushed your mane, making you look like one spiffy colt, if you do say so yourself. You have a feeling your mom will interrogate you on why you happen to be much cleaner than when you left home earlier today, but you’ll worry about that when you get there.

“Time for you to be on your way home, young one,” you hear Rarity say behind you. She had escorted you and Sweetie straight from the bathroom to the back door of the boutique. It’s a bit curious how you feel right now; you never wanted to set hoof inside this building a couple hours ago, but now you’re not sure if you want to leave.

“Aw, can’t he stay for just a little while longer?” asks Sweetie, secretly preparing to use another wide-eyed stare if necessary.

“I’m afraid not,” explains Rarity, “Our mom and dad will be here soon to take you home, so you won’t have much time to play with him. Besides, I really need to get started on designing all those socks for that silly game half the town will be playing in a couple weeks, and I simply don’t have time for babysitting once I’m ‘in the zone’, so to speak.”

“Okay.” Sweetie sighs, accepting her sister’s truths. Looks like older sisters could also be major killjoys when they wanted to.

“But, can I at least say goodbye?” Sweetie asks

“Well, I don’t see the harm in that,” says Rarity. “Very well, but don’t keep him too long. The sun’s going to be setting soon, after all.”

With that, Sweetie’s big sister turns and heads back inside the shop. You see her walk halfway down the hall before stopping and bringing her long wet mane in front of her face to examine. You think you hear her say something about “bringing back the shower-head look” before disappearing into another room.

“Thank you.”

How do you keep forgetting Sweetie’s there?

“Uh, sorry?” you ask with a coy smile as your attention moves back to her.

“I mean, thanks for stopping by. I really like taking baths with other friends,” says Sweetie, carrying a peaceful smile on her face. Rarity did a number on her, too; her white coat shines bright in the sun, and not a single strand of hair is out of place on her pretty, curly mane. As much as you don’t want to admit, she really does look c…cu…the “c” word.

“Oh, no problem,” you reply in a surprisingly confident voice. “Thanks for offering that bath. This is the cleanest I’ve felt in a long time.”

“Yeah, my sister’s really thorough about that. Sometimes she acts more like a mom than my mom does.”

“Heh heh, I see that,” you respond. Heck, if Sweetie hadn’t told you about her before you were caught, you might have mistaken Rarity for Sweetie’s mother.

“So, do you want to hang out tomorrow?” Sweetie asks. “We could maybe help you find your cutie mark?”

“Um, actually, I kinda promised my friend Pipsqueak that we’d hang out tomorrow,” you truthfully tell Sweetie, to which you start to see a disappointed frown form on her face. “But we can always drop by if we get bored or something!” you quickly add.

“Okay then!” Sweetie perks up real quick. “So I guess I’ll see you later?”

“Of course, Sweetie,” you reply as you stare into her deep green eyes. “Take care of yourself, okay? I don’t want your sister to get mad at you for getting dirty again.”

“That’ll be okay,” Sweetie assures you, “Apple Bloom said tomorrow’s plan to get our cutie mark won’t get us real dirty…although she also said that when we tried being Cutie Mark Crusader Butter Churners, and that ended up being really messy, but really tasty, too!”

You chuckle a little bit. Looks like Sweetie is just destined to keep getting dirty until she gets her cutie mark…

“Well, I better be going now,” you speak up. You had noticed that the sun was starting to set, meaning your parents are going to start wondering where you are if you don’t hurry back.

You reluctantly step out of the doorway and into the outside world, then turn and give one last smile to the marshmallowy filly you never thought you would become friends with.

“Bye Sweetie. See you later!”

“Bye!” she cheerfully calls back, waving her hoof in the air. “See you around!”

With nothing else to say, you turn around and walk off, your hooves feeling almost lighter than air as you travel on the dirt roads that will lead you to your home. Just like every other you had seen Sweetie, the pretty white mare is sticking in your head long after she’s gone. This time, however, she’s no longer an unwelcome guest in your mind, and you’re no longer strangers with her.

Deep down, you just know that you two are going to be great friends.

________________________________________________________________________________

Note: You now like Sweetie Belle a lot more than you did before, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say you have a thing for her. That’d just be weird.

You do have a thing for bathtubs and splash fights now, though...and Rarity with wet hair. Sweet, sweet wet hair.

Author's Note

12/10/12 - Don't mind me, just fixing the grammar a little bit.

Bonus Ending: The Next Day

“Ugh, this stinks,” groans Scootaloo, wiping some sweat off her brow. She’s tired and bored beyond belief, and couldn’t wait to get this over with so she could go home and do…anything other than this. Why oh why did she have to blab about her mudball stunt to Rainbow Dash? Why did Rainbow have to mention it to her other friends, who ended up mentioning it their friends until the whole town found out it was them? Why did the regular street-cleaner have to break his leg in a freak scrubbing accident, thus making scrubbing down the entire plaza that got messy from the mudball their punishment for the day?

“Hey, Apple Bloom!” she calls out to her friend, who is occupied on a different part of the wall they are working on.

“…What is it this time?” Apple Bloom sighs. She takes her hooves, which had sponges attached to them on the ends, off the walls to direct her attention towards her friend. If only Scootaloo wouldn’t distract her so she could get this done sooner…

“Can we switch sponges again? I don’t think these are working all that well,” the orange filly asks.

“But we’ve switched twice now already,” replies Apple Bloom, “and ya said the same thing about yer sponge all three times.”

“Well, it’s not my fault this stupid mud won’t come off at all. I’ve been scrubbing as hard as I can and it’s barely doing anything. It’s like somepony put a spell on it on something.”

“Ah’m just sayin’ it ain’t gonna matter what ya use,” explains Apple Bloom, “The mud and dirt’s had a whole day to dry up and cake on. It’s gonna be hard to clean off anyway.”

“Cake on? Ew, I don’t really like mud cakes,” Sweetie Belle idly chimes in as she closely examines a window she’s been washing. “Hey, maybe we could all go for some cupcakes when we get done cleaning! I bet that would cheer us all right up!” She perks up as she starts to imagine her yummy suggestion; she can almost taste one of Pinkie Pie’s signature cupcakes now…

“More like ‘if’ we ever get done,” grumbles Scootaloo, forcing the white filly back to the present, “I feel like I’m going to scrub my own hooves off at this rate.” Scootaloo pauses to look at a forelimb, which had begun to comically throb in exhausted pain. “Just how long have we been cleaning, anyway?”

Apple Bloom sighs as she once again has to stop cleaning to indulge her friend’s request. Why did she have to make a perfect score on that telling-time test in school the other day?

“We’ve been cleanin’ for…” she turns to look at a convenient clock tower in the plaza, “…about thirty minutes now.”

“What, that’s all!?” replies a shocked and disappointed Scootaloo. There’s no doubt she is going to be scrubbing mud off buildings all day. “Gah, this really stinks! When this is over, remind me not to try anything involving mud to get our cutie marks again.”

“Well, mud’s not all bad,” Sweetie replies, always looking for the silver lining in any cloud. “My sister puts mud on her face all the time. I think she does it to make her look prettier, but she still gets mad at me when I come home covered in mud.”

“That’s a different kind’a mud, Sweetie,” responds Apple Bloom, “…at least, ah think it is. Ah’ve been fully covered in regular mud before, and it didn’t feel like it made me any prettier…”

“Me neither. It just makes me sticky and smelly. I guess my sister’s just weird like that.”

“Ah don’t doubt that…” continues Apple Bloom, “Hey Sweetie, speakin’ of mud, how’s that kid we accidentally ran over yesterday?”

“Oh, him? He’s great…” Sweetie sighs dreamily, her eyes staring into space as she pleasantly recalls the fun bath she had yesterday afternoon.

“…uhh, I think she was asking if he’s doing okay,” Scootaloo chimes in.

“Oh! Um, he’s fine,” says Sweetie, a small blush peeking through her cheeks. “I saw him walking around with Pipsqueak this morning. They looked like they were having a pretty good time. I wish I could’ve stopped to say hello to them, but Applejack just told me to keep walking.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” replies Apple Bloom, “Mah big sis can get really pushy when she wants someone to get somethin’ done. Ah’m still kinda surprised she took time outta her daily chores to supervise us cleanin’ our mess.”

“Hey, speaking of Applejack, where is your sister?” Scootaloo interjects. The other two Crusaders stop their scrubbing and turn around. Just as she had pointed out, Applejack was nowhere to be seen; aside from the occasional carriage riding down the road next to them, they are almost completely alone in the plaza again.

“Ya don’t remember?” says Apple Bloom, “She said she needed to go use the fillies’ room real quick. Of course, she did head off towards Sweet Apple Acres…and that was right when we got started cleanin’…”

Sounds like she isn’t taking as much time off her daily chores as she told us, Scootaloo mumbles to herself, “I wish Rainbow Dash was supervising us, instead. She might have given us a little more slack, and maybe we wouldn’t be here all day,” she finds herself saying instead.

“Rainbow woulda just took off to do somethin’ else five minutes after we got started,” retorts Apple Bloom, “and besides, there’s no way we’re gettin’ any rest from this. The whole town knows it’s us that caused this mess, so they’ll know if we try to weasel out from cleanin’ it up.”

“…Can’t argue with that,” admits a reluctant Scootaloo. Not only did she have no way out of cleaning up the plaza, but she also wouldn’t blame Rainbow for not wanting to stick around when she could be doing all sorts of awesome things.

She lowers her head and lets out another annoyed sigh. “Urgh, this day can’t get any worse…”

“Oh look, if it isn’t Ponyville’s newest street cleaners!”

Scootaloo groans as she hears the prissy voice she had grown to loathe. Despite watching quite a few cartoons herself, she still forgot a classic rule about tempting fate: Don’t.

“What do you want, Diamond Tiara?” Scootaloo groans, not bothering to turn to face her sworn enemy.

“Oh, nothing,” replies the rich filly, making her voice sound both innocent and vicious at the same time. “Just out for a stroll with my good friend, Silver Spoon. You know, my good filly friend who also has her cutie mark, and doesn’t have to make a mess out of the entire town just to find it.”

“It’s true,” her gray-coated friend chimes in, “My parents even tell me I was born with it!” She pauses to turn her flank towards the crusader and show off her namesake cutie mark. “I can’t imagine how awful it must feel to have to make total fools of yourselves to get one of these, especially on a daily basis!”

“Don’t tease, Silver Spoon!” Tiara continues mockingly. “After all, it’s not nice to totally flaunt all the good stuff you have in front of ponies that don’t have them, especially to a bunch of blank flanks!”

At this point, the two rich fillies could no longer contain themselves, and began giggling in their special spoiled way. Their laughter and mocking could grate even the most stoic of ponies, and they were certainly working their mean-spirited manner on the Crusaders.

Scootaloo in particular could really feel her blood boiling now. If those two didn’t shut up soon, then she could no longer be held responsible for any bloody snouts that may or may not occur.

Fortunately for her, Sweetie Belle had noticed the rage building in her eyes. “Just ignore them,” she quietly reasons, “They’re not worth the trouble…please?”

Glancing over at Sweetie, Scootaloo stares into her gentle green eyes. Scootaloo could never understand how Sweetie could be so calm in situations like this, but somehow she musters up the extreme willpower needed to not lash out at those bullies. Instead, she calmly breathes out and goes back to scrubbing her part of the building, finding that the mud is somehow coming off much easier to her surprise.

“Ha ha ha ha…oh wow!” Diamond Tiara’s laughter from her own jokes finally comes to a stop, and her friend follows suit. “Well, I’d love to stay here and talk about your blank flanks all day, but we need to be going now. Our parents are having a box social croquet match, and we simply must be there to cheer them on. Isn’t that right, Silver Spoon?”

“Of course, and maybe later we can, like, do all sorts of really fun stuff. It’s a shame our friends here will be too busy cleaning up their mess to join us on this totally amazing day.”

“Don’t feel too bad for them, Silver. Maybe they’ll, like, earn their cutie marks while they’re scrubbing up the plaza and discover their totally special talents as janitors!”

Unable to help themselves, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara once again succumb to another fit of cruel cackling, forgetting about their croquet match as they continue to laugh at their own put-downs.

At this point, Scootaloo could feel the willpower she had regained from Sweetie Belle slowly sapping away once again. This time, however, she didn’t hear a peep out of Sweetie or even Apple Bloom. In fact, both of them are starting to sport annoyed glares of their own, glares that only get stronger as the laughter continues. A large fight seems inevitable-

*SPLASH!*

The laughter comes to a sudden end. Apple Bloom immediately perks up and turns to see the cause of this sudden change in behavior. After all, there’s no way those two fillies had suddenly turned nice.

What she find nearly causes her to bawk: Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara are standing perfectly still, their lips quivering, their eyes open in shock, and their coats and manes now wet and dirty, a far cry from their prim and pristine look only a moment ago. It seems that yet another carriage had passed by while everypony was distracted, running over a puddle of muddy water that had still yet to dry from the rain a few days ago and spraying its contents on the rich fillies. Apple Bloom is not alone in her surprised look for long, as Scootaloo and Sweetie both turn around and stare in wide-eyed surprise.

“…Wuh…wuh…” Silver Spoon tries to speak, but can’t.

“…Wuh…we…we’re…” Diamond Tiara tries her hoof at talking next.

“We’re…we’re…RUINED!!”

“WE’RE TOTALLY DIRTY NOW!” Silver screams in terror immediately after her friend.

“IT’S SO ICKY, GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!”

“WE SPENT ALL DAY ON OUR COATS AND MANES!”

“WE’LL NEVER GET CLEAN IN TIME FOR THE SOCIAL!”

“OUR PARENTS ARE GONNA BE SO MAD AT US!”

“WE’LL BE GROUNDED FOR FOREVER!”

“I THINK I FEEL A DEAD BUG ON MY COAT!”

None of the Crusaders could believe what they are seeing: the two fillies who had made sure that everyone knew they were better than everyone else in school are now breaking down right in front of them, flipping their lid over a little dirt that would easily come off in a quick bath. Scootaloo can barely keep from falling over in laughter at both their overly dramatic reactions and the karmic justice that had been swiftly delivered. Apple Bloom merely shakes her head and wonders what’s wrong with those two fillies. Sweetie Belle quietly ponders if Silver and Diamond’s freak-out even comes close to matching some of her sister’s previous breakdowns.

Like clockwork, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara both stop their screaming when they remember that not only were they dirty, but they were dirty in public. They quickly look at each other, then at the Crusaders, and then back at themselves again.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” They both scream in perfect unison before running out of the plaza and to their homes as quickly as they could.

For a while, the Crusaders merely stand there in slight disbelief, the only sounds they make being Scootaloo’s barely-controlled laughter.

“A-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha…oh, wow…” Scootaloo’s laughing finally dies down. “I really needed that. They’re even worse than your sister, Sweetie!”

“Yeah, I guess so…” Sweetie slowly replies. She is certain that Rarity could outdo them if she wanted to, but she had another issue on her mind for the moment. “…Maybe we should help them get cleaned up?”

“Are you kidding?” Scootaloo says bluntly. “I’d rather scrub down every building in Ponyville before that.”

“…ah guess they’ve just never gotten as dirty as we have,” Apple Bloom finally concludes. “I dunno, it might be good for them to get a little dirty every once in a while. Might help ‘em not act so spoiled all the time.”

“…I don’t think there’s enough dirt in Equestria to help those two clean up their act,” declares Scootaloo.

“Hah-hah, yer probably right there!” Apple Bloom laughs. “Now come on, let’s get this place cleaned up!”

With that, the Crusaders go back to cleaning the plaza, a chore that becomes filled with giggling and good-natured banter, shared in a way that only the best of friends can.

BONUS: Commentary

Note: This chapter is not an extra chapter to the story, but rather a series of interesting tidbits that went into the creation of this fic. Spoilers warning apply. Enjoy, and thank you for reading.

-First things first: The inspiration for this story came to me out of nowhere, just about. I can't exactly remember if it hit me before or after I finished up work for "A Well-Deserved Break," but I remember that the idea of sharing a bath with a filly friend had not quite been done before in pony fiction, and thus would make for a unique and really cute story. Of course, I also had concerns about the idea, as the concept for it is very similar to "A Well-Deserved Break" in which you have an intimate moment with a love interest while neck-high in warm water. Eventually, I decided that as long as the pretense was different enough, it could lead to a fic with a different feel and progression all of its own.

-On the other hand, the choice for which filly to write about was a no-brainer for me. In addition to being the most adorable of the three Crusaders, Sweetie Belle is also the character I feel is not represented in the fandom as well as she should be. It seems that most depictions of her in fanon have her as an airhead who only exists to have a blond moment every now and then. I wanted to portray her in a different light, where she's a bit naive but still very much a kind-hearted and well-meaning filly (in other words, how she was shown in "Sisterhooves Social"). Also, "Sweetiepoo" is the dumbest meme to ever exist in bronydom. Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

-I had a bit of a tough time figuring out a good way to get both "you" and Sweetie dirty at the same time. At first, I had something along the lines of her offering you a ride home from school on Scootaloo's wagon, and said wagon overturning into a mud puddle, but that proved to be a bit too difficult to put together. I ended up deciding that the best option would be for the "you" character to be taken by complete surprise, and thus the mudball idea was chosen.

-Pipsqueak was only in this fic solely because I like him. It's my story, I can do these things if I want to. :P

-Likewise, Rarity was originally only in the story so I'd have an excuse to talk about her having a wet mane like in the end of "Sisterhooves Social". As it turned out, she also ended up with plenty more plot-related reasons to be included, such as providing an excuse to force the two foals to take a bath together, providing more opportunities for gags, and simply by virtue of being Sweetie's sister. Also, she's a pretty fun and easy character to write, in my opinion. All I have to do is imagine how she would sound or react in a situation, and she pretty much writes herself.

-The one line you hear from Rarity's soap opera is actually a line I lifted from It Never Hurts To Ask, a short sensual fic by Strider of Xir. It's one of my favorite lines to come from the Sensual Fiction General, and I just couldn't resist throwing it in.

-The biggest trouble I had with this fic is figuring out what I wanted to happen once "you" and Sweetie were alone in the tub. There was at least a dozen ways that scene could have played out, and none of them stood out enough in my mind. The only thing I had down for sure was Sweetie confessing her feelings and then performing the splash fight fake-out. Eventually, I just forced myself to start writing and hope I liked it enough to keep going. I think it worked out in the end, but it's something I hopefully won't have to deal with again anytime soon.

-Anyone catch the reference to Ponies Vs. Monsters? It's fun to write call-forwards. :P

-At the end of the story, I initially planned on Sweetie giving you a quick kiss on the cheek just before you left the Boutique. I ended up not going through with it because I felt that it would've been better to leave them strictly as "friends" for the time being. Whether or not I change that with any future installments that may or may not happen remains to be determined...