Little Ponies, Big Trouble
"Tag, you're it!" Sunny gleefully, cheerfully and playfully exclaimed as she lightly poked Hitch, her fellow earth pony, in the side.
"Hey, no fair!" Hitch whined in a most playful and exaggerated tone of voice. "Just because Sprout isn't here right now doesn't mean you have to always tag me."
Sunny stuck out her tongue. "All's fair in love and war, and tag battles," She teased as she swished her tail. "Besides, we're both earth ponies. If I were a unicorn I could just teleport in front of or behind you. And if I were a pegasus I could fly right over you all I wanted."
The little colt giggled at his friend's imagination. Sunny was always talking about the times of ancient Equestria that her dad was studying, especially whenever she was inviting him over for a playdate. "Yeah? Well if you were one of those, Sprout and I would totally kick your butt!" He puffed out his chest and tried to sound brave. That's what every upstanding citizen of Maretime Bay was supposed to say in this sort of situation, right?
"Nu-uh!" The little filly just wiggled her rear in a playful, teasing fashion. She especially enjoyed how doing so made the diaper she was wearing crinkle ever so faintly, and a faint whiff of cornstarch filled the air. But then her wandering imagination turned to something she hadn't noticed until now, so obsessed was she in her playtime. "Say, where is Sprout? Did he disappear?"
Hitch shook his head even as he uncertainly replied. "I don't think so. He's not a unicorn or a pegasus."
Sunny frowned. "I bet he's hiding behind his mommy again, like he does every time I tell him that the unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies used to be friends," A slight humph escaped her lips as she complained. "He's a poopy head."
"I am not!" A familiar red coated earth pony colt whined as he came waddling into view of the others. "Mommy changed me not that long ago. Besides, my mommy is always right."
"Nu-uh!" Sunny protested.
"Yeah-huh!" Sprout insisted as he came waddling up to Sunny until the two foals were nose to nose.
Hitch quickly saw what was happening, and he didn't like it one bit. It never ended well when his two friends started arguing like this, they often ended up having to be separated and sent out to time out. And that meant they weren't able to play with him or even talk to him.
Unfortunately, the yellowish-orange coated colt could see that there weren't any grown-ups around. No sign of his parents, Sunny's dad or Sprout's mom. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Sprout mom since he'd showed up at Sprout's house for this playdate and he found that quite odd. But he could worry about that later, right now he reluctantly realized it was up to him to stop this argument. "Sunny, Sprout, you two aren't supposed to be fighting." He scolded.
"We're not fighting!" Sprout innocently insisted even as he accusingly pointed a hoof at Sunny. "Besides, she started it!"
"Did not!" Sunny snapped back.
"Did too!" Sprout accusingly shouted.
Hitch shook his head and trotted over, placing himself between his two feuding foal friends. "You both are, and you both gotta stop it," He told them in no uncertain terms. "If the grown-ups see you fighting, you're gonna get in big trouble. I just wanna play with you both and have fun." He proceeded to shoot off a look he seldom liked to use. He knew other foals used it all the time whenever they wanted to get something, but it felt wrong to him to do the same. Still, he pulled out the pleading, pouty puppy dog eyes look.
That did the trick, both Sunny and Sprout couldn't stand to see their only mutual friend looking so unhappy. It was just as bad as whenever they made their parents upset with them. So they both said, "We're sorry." and that was the end of that.
Satisfied that he'd stopped an argument before it got out of control, Hitch relaxed his face and smiled. "That's better," Then he turned to Sprout and asked his fellow colt. "Where were you? Sunny kept tagging me because you disappeared. You're not supposed to do that when we play tag."
The little red coated colt was quick to explain what had been behind his unexplained and unannounced absence. "I was looking for my mommy," He explained, then gestured a hoof to his stomach. "I was getting hungry, and I wanted to ask Mommy if we could have snack time soon."
"You're always hungry, Sprout." Sunny couldn't resist teasing.
"So what? This time I was really hungry," Sprout replied as he kept his hoof placed firmly over his stomach. "But Mommy wasn't in the kitchen, so I went looking for her. But I couldn't find her in any of the places where I usually find her," Then the colt let out a whimper as he began to tear up. "My mommy's missing!"
Hitch and Sunny exchanged gasps of worry! "She is?!"
Sprout reluctantly nodded. "She has to be if I can't find her anywhere. We have to find her!"
"Do we have to?" The little filly whined ever so slightly as she sat down. "Your mommy's not very nice, Sprout. She always argues with my daddy and says his research is silly."
Hitch didn't share the same sentiments, at least not out loud. "Even if she's not always nice, that doesn't mean we shouldn't help Sprout look for her," He insisted as he looked to Sunny, locking eyes with her. "If it was your daddy that disappeared, you'd want Sprout to help you find him, right?"
A look of realization flashed in little Sunny's eyes. She apparently hadn't ever given thought to such a thought before. "I guess you're right, Hitch." She said to him as she reluctantly stood up.
Satisfied that he'd now twice been able to get his friends to get along, the earth pony colt with a yellowish-orange coat smiled. He wished somepony were here to praise him for being such a good foal. Perhaps someday he might even be able to do that as a job or something. However, there were more pressing concerns to tackle at the moment: Namely the whereabouts of Sprout's mommy. "We'll help however we can, Sprout." Hitch told his fellow colt.
Sprout kicked his back legs in delight! "Great! You guys are the best!" Just like that, a ragtag search and rescue group had been formed. Their goal: To find Sprout's missing mommy, wherever she may be.
For a moment or so after the three foals agreed to look together for Sprout's mommy, not one of the three little earth ponies had moved even an inch. They all stood around, blinking their eyes and perhaps occasionally glancing over their shoulders to their properly padded postures.
The silence was only finally broken up when Hitch decided to ask point blank. "Well?"
And in reply, Sprout simply said. "Well what?"
"Shouldn't somepony take the lead?" Hitch suggested to his fellow foals. "Somepony should have an idea about where we're supposed to go or what we're supposed to do. Or are we just gonna stand around here until somepony comes by?"
"That's boring! I like tag better!" Sunny protested with a pout. "Let's go back to playing tag! I'll bet Sprout's mommy isn't really missing, Sprout's just messing with us again. Just like when he said there was a monster in my closet, but it was just an ugly old sweater my daddy used to wear."
The red coated earth pony foal snapped back. "It looked like a monster to me. And I know my mommy's missing. I checked everywhere I could think of whenever I don't see her. She wasn't in any of those places, she has to be missing. You promised to help me, Sunny!" And he started to cry. "Please! I need to find my mommy! I don't like being without her and not knowing where she is!"
Seeing the colt cry was enough to fill Sunny with guilt. She quickly remembered what Hitch had said about how she'd feel if it were her daddy that was missing. She most definitely wouldn't like having to be without him and not knowing where he was. He was a pony who she could always count on to be there for her, and Sprout's mommy was no different. Mommies and daddies were there for their foals no matter what. And if they were missing, any good foal should take it upon themselves to look for them until the missing grown-up or grown-ups were found.
So Sunny waddled over to Sprout. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be mean," She sincerely apologized. "But I think Hitch is right. Somepony should tell us what to do or where to go," And then she got an idea. "Maybe we should start looking where you last saw your mommy? Daddy always tells me that when you lose something, you should start looking in the place where you last saw it."
"What a great idea, Sunny!" Hitch encouraged. "I was just about to suggest that."
Sprout simply sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes, this was no time to be crying. He had to be brave if he was going to find his missing mommy. "Thank you, Sunny," He said with a sincere smile. This was why they were still friends despite how often they tended to argue and fight over silly things (someday, Sprout was sure Sunny would see things his way). Then he proceeded to pluck up courage. "Come on! We gotta start searching, and I know the place!" And he waddled away, his pampered rear swaying from side to side as he carried himself so assertively.
Sunny and Hitch followed, not knowing or suspecting where Sprout was leading them. But follow him they would since they had no better ideas in mind at the moment. He was their friend and they had promised to help him. So for now, Sprout was leader and they were to follow him wherever he might go. That's how things like this worked.
The three foals wandered aimlessly through the house that belonged to Sprout and his mommy. It was a fine little house in Maretime Bay, not far from where Sprout's mommy worked as head of that place that produced all those funny looking machines.
But that obviously wasn't where Sprout's mommy had gone. She wouldn't have left for that place, whatever it was called, without telling them and arranging for somepony to come over and watch them (which was never Sunny's daddy if she could help it). She had to be somewhere in this house that was bigger than it seemed. So what if it only had a single floor? It was still full of rooms and places where somepony could disappear to on a moment's notice.
Eventually, the tiny trio rounded a corner only for Sprout to stop right in his tracks (thus causing Sunny and Hitch to bump into him, or rather Sunny bumped into Sprout's rear and Hitch bumped into hers).
Sunny peeked out from behind Sprout as best she could, trying to see what the little colt could see. "Why did you stop?" She asked him.
"Did you find your mommy already?" Hitch asked with hope in his heart.
Without moving an inch, Sprout shook his head and explained to his fellow foals. "No, I didn't. But I think I know where to start looking for her. This is right around the place where I last saw her." He then gestured a hoof to a door that appeared to be all but shut tight. There was no light on the other side of it, nothing but pitch black darkness.
Sunny and Hitch eyed the door, and their little hearts began to fill with dread and a sense of nervousness. The door was vaguely familiar to them, but that wasn't what worried them. No, it was what that door led to that made them feel ill at ease. That door led to a place that all little foals were told they were never supposed to go into, at least not by themselves: The bathroom.
None of the foals knew why the grown-ups specifically seemed to forbid them from entering such a place alone. But they also knew that when grown-ups said not to go somewhere or not to touch something, they usually had a very good reason for it.
"Uh, Sprout," Hitch nervously spoke up as he tried to keep his legs from shaking (and doing a very poor job of it). "Are you sure we should go in... there?" He hoped beyond hope his friend was only kidding.
Alas, the little red coated colt was not. He was quite serious. "We have to! Mommy might be in there! We have to search the place and look for her!"
Sunny shuddered, shook and shivered. "But do we really have to go into the bathroom? You know we're not supposed to go in there. We could get into trouble."
Sprout wasn't deterred for even a second. "It's the only way I'll know if my mommy is in there or not. I have to search everywhere she might be, even if I'm not supposed to go in there. And I'm gonna do it with or without you guys! You promised to help me, didn't you?"
Hitch sighed. He always hated it when Sprout did things like this. "You're right, we did," And he reluctantly looked to Sunny. "I guess we have no choice. We have to go into the bathroom with Sprout and help him look for his mommy."
"Okay, but let's make it quick." Little Sunny nervously insisted. "I don't wanna get into trouble."
"Me either!" Little Hitch nodded in agreement.
"Don't worry, we'll be in and out of there before anypony ever finds out." Little Sprout said with a wink. And then he fearlessly marched towards the bathroom door. Regardless of whether it was open or closed, he would find a way past it and into the room it was guarding. He had to search that room, his mommy could be in there. Only once he'd had a good look around would he know for sure if his hunch was right or not.
Sunny and Hitch followed their fellow foal towards the door. The leader was never wrong.
As it turned out, the door to the bathroom actually wasn't closed all the way. It had been left slightly ajar, though the lack of light surrounding the actual bathroom had made it hard for the foals to tell from afar that such was the case. Putting their heads against the door, the three little earth ponies forced it open all the way as the door creaked ominously on its hinges.
The bathroom was indeed without light of any sort. The whole place was dark, felt cold to the touch and seemed quite scary. Strange objects were everywhere, all of them appearing as shadows with unusual shapes. Why would anypony set hoof into a place such as this?
"I don't see your mommy anywhere in here, Sprout," Sunny spoke up, dispelling the silence that hung over the bathroom along with strange smells (it was kind of like the smell of a dirty diaper, but at the same time it also smelt "clean"). "Maybe we should go look somewhere else?"
"Y-yeah," Hitch said with a gulp. "I don't like this place. I can see why our mommies and daddies say we're not supposed to be in here."
Sprout snorted as he spun around to face his friends. "We haven't actually looked around here yet. We have to check the whole place in case my mommy's hiding or stuck somewhere. Now come on! If you help me look it won't take as long and we won't have to be here forever." He swished his tail and then turned his back to them, waddling away with that determined look upon his face.
Hesitant and frightened as they may be, Sunny and Hitch weren't about to just abandon Sprout in a place such as this. They'd come into the bathroom together, the least they could do was help Sprout search it as quickly as possible.
The three foals searched everywhere they could. They looked in every nook and cranny, pulled back what turned out to be curtains on one of the objects and even peeked into cupboards underneath another. They didn't find any trace of Sprout's mommy, although in the cupboards they did briefly spot some funny looking bottles. If not for the fact that it wouldn't help them achieve their goal, the tiny trio might have pulled said bottles out for a closer inspection.
At last, it seemed like the search had ended and there wasn't a sign of Sprout's mommy anywhere in sight. Wherever she was, the bathroom didn't seem to be the place where she had disappeared to.
However, there was one thing that the little earth ponies hadn't properly inspected yet. They'd searched around it but they hadn't searched the very object itself. It was the one that commanded attention even from afar with its unusual shape. It kind of looked like a chair of some kind since it was so tall. But it was also round, almost bowl like shaped. And it seemed like something smooth and shiny was sticking out to one side of it.
Whatever it was, it was big. Bigger than the three foals by a great deal. What it was, they had no idea.
"We have to check that... that... thing out!" Sprout stubbornly insisted as his green eyes saw signs of his friends and fellow foals looking ready to back out of this whole ordeal.
"I don't know, Sprout," Sunny gulped. "I think I've seen something like this in my house once, and my daddy said I wasn't supposed to touch it."
Hitch nodded in agreement. "You should listen to Sunny, Sprout. I don't think your mommy's inside of that... whatever it is." And he backed away from the strange object slowly.
Did those pleas stop little Sprout? Not even for a second! "You guys don't know for sure! My mommy could be in there, or there could be a clue as to where she went!" He declared while puffing out his chest and trying to look brave. "I'm gonna find out one way or another!" Then the little colt stood up, reaching his front hooves out to feel around the object for any kind of opening. It looked like something was covering the bowl part of it. Yet try as he might, Sprout found that he couldn't lift it by himself.
Hitch and Sunny stood there for a moment in silent uncertainty. They weren't sure what they should do in a situation like this. The moment faded, however, and it seemed that both foals decided they should help their friend after all. So they rushed to help Sprout, wrapping their hooves around the same place as his and straining heavily.
At last, with their combined strength, the three foals managed to force the cover up and throw it up against the back of the object! It hit the back with a loud slam, the noise echoing through the silence of the bathroom and causing the tiny trio of earth ponies to jump back a bit in fright!
"Come on!" Sprout boldly insisted to his friends once the shock of the loud noise had worn off. "We've got to check out that opening we just made."
"But I don't see anything." Sunny protested as she looked at the object. Aside from the cover being up, nothing seemed at all different about it.
Sprout frowned. "Duh. You're not looking at it from the right place. We have to be looking down into it, not up at it. Obviously, this thing is supposed to be climbed onto. Otherwise, why would it have an opening for us to look into and down at? It must be like those things Mommy makes at her job, we just have to be careful not to turn it on so it won't attack us." Then he ran towards the cross between a chair and a bowl, throwing his hooves onto the same place they had found the cover as he scrambled up onto what appeared to be the "sitting place".
Curious to see what their friend could see, Sunny and Hitch didn't hesitate to scramble over to the object and climb up onto the place in the same manner they'd seen Sprout do it. Soon, all three foals were standing on something that clearly felt like it wasn't supposed to have three of them standing on it all at once. There was barely room to move.
But when the little earth ponies did manage to look down from their new vantage point, they saw something that made their little eyes go wide with wonder and amazement! In the opening they had created, there was some kind of smooth, mirror-like surface staring back at them. But it wasn't a mirror, they knew that much for sure. It appeared to be moving ever so slightly and looked like it had some kind of tint or glow to it.
Still, there didn't seem to be any signs of Sprout's mommy anywhere within it. As fascinating as this discovery was, the foals knew it wasn't what they were looking for.
Yet it was then that Sunny's wandering eyes became transfixed on something, something that she could easily see from her vantage point even though her friends obviously didn't have the same luxury. It was that gleaming, shiny ramp like object from earlier that was now sticking out just off to Sunny's left. It was clearly attached to the back of the object she was standing on, so it had to be a part of it somehow. But what was it for? What was its connection to all the other parts to this strange device she and her friends had stumbled across?
Well, for a curious little one like Sunny, there was only one way to find out. She didn't even bother to tell her friends what she was going to do, so filled with curiosity was she. The little filly carefully and delicately reached out a hoof to the ramp like object. When she was certain she had a good grasp on it, she pulled on it.
Nothing seemed to happen at first. But then, the earth pony filly felt her hoof start to slide. And when it did it pushed the ramp like object down. There was a click, and then an unfamiliar roaring sound filled the air!
Hitch and Sprout, from their point of view, only saw that suddenly the mirror-like surface they had been looking at disappeared! There was indeed something inside the bottom of that bowl, because it was moving and moving fast! It appeared to have a spinning motion to it, a motion that was dizzying to look at! And it only got faster as the seconds passed!
"Gah!" The two colts screamed!
"Sunny, what did you do?!" Hitch shouted above the frightening roar!
"I don't know! I can't stop it!" Sunny shouted back as she found her body being stretched outward by the ramp like object's downward motion!
"You can't?!" Sprout gasped in horror! "What do you mean you can't?! You have to stop it somehow!" But then he felt his hooves slip! Without warning, the colt lost his balance and fell backwards into the bowl below!
Sunny and Hitch could only watch in horror as their friend fell, quickly swept up by the spinning motion and twirled all about! "SPROUT!" They both shouted at the top of their lungs! What could they do?! What should they do?!
"Somepony, make it stop!" Sprout screamed as he spun around, faster and faster and unable to escape! To make matters worse, it felt like something was tugging on his tail and trying to pull him down! Looking down, he thought he glanced at some kind of opening that everything seemed to be retreating towards. Was that where he was going to end up?!
All of a sudden, light flooded the entire bathroom! And then a voice that all three foals instantly recognized said. "What are you three doing in here?" Its owner turned out to be none other than Phyllis: Sprout's missing mommy. Except now she wasn't missing!
"MOMMY!" Sprout shouted as he finally saw his mommy again for the first time in what felt like forever. Normally, he would've been relieved to see that she was okay. But right now he could only think about the precarious situation he believed himself to be in! "HELP ME! THIS THING'S TRYING TO EAT ME!"
Phyllis quickly trotted over to her son's location and fished him out, plopping him down onto some prepared towels to shield the bathroom floor from his soaking wet form. "It's okay, Sprout. You're safe now," She told her son, and then she couldn't help but chuckle. "And you weren't in any real danger. You couldn't have been eaten, because that object doesn't eat ponies."
"Not even for midnight snacks like the unicorns do?" Sprout asked as he suddenly found his diapered rear felt much "heavier" for lack of a better term.
Phyllis shook her head from side to side. "Nope. There is no such thing as a pony eating toilet."
"Toilet?" All three foals blinked in confusion. This was the first they'd ever heard such a word be used.
Phyllis simply adjusted her glasses, then carefully picked up Sunny and Hitch and set them both safely down on the floor. "Yes. It's what mommies and daddies use, as well as big ponies when they no longer need to wear diapers. Everypony in Maretime Bay has at least one toilet in their bathrooms."
"So I did see it before somewhere," Sunny realized. "But why do you, and my daddy and Hitch's mommy and daddy all say we're not supposed to go near it by ourselves?"
Phyllis laughed and explained. "Well, considering the trouble you three silly little foals got up to with it, you can probably guess why. The toilet is not something to play around with it, it's not a toy. It is only to be used for its intended purpose."
"But what was with that loud noise it made when Sunny pressed down on that... shiny thing on the toilet?" Hitch questioned.
"And what about the fact that it spun me around and pulled on my tail?" Sprout asked. "That was pretty scary."
The earth pony mare simply patted the foals' heads as she explained again. "That is what's called a flush. It's a natural part of the toilet's intended function, it's how it cleans itself after it's been used. Sunny must've triggered it when she pressed down on the handle," And to her son she then added. "When the flush started and you fell in, the toilet obviously was trying to remove you along with everything else inside of it. When the flush cycle ends, everything is supposed to go down the drain. But you are too big to go down the drain, Sprout, with or without a diaper."
Sprout breathed a much needed sigh of relief upon hearing the news.
Sunny, meanwhile, looked up at Phyllis with a guilty expression upon her face. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Cloverleaf. I didn't mean to flush the toilet or try to flush Sprout. Hitch and I were just trying to help him find you. He thought you might have come in here because he couldn't find you anywhere else."
"Yeah," Hitch added. "We wanted to help him look for you because that's what good friends do, right?"
Phyllis nodded and continued to smile. If she was at all upset about what had transpired in her absence, she wasn't showing it outwardly. "It most certainly is. But as you can see, I'm just fine. I simply needed to lie down and rest for a little while. Really, this is my fault for leaving you three alone without making sure you knew where I was," She found herself unable to keep from giggling as she then went on to say. "I must say, you three are quite the adventurers. And it's wonderful to see that you have such healthy and active imaginations. Wanting to know how things work is something to admire. However, there's a reason why we say at Canterlogic: 'To be scared is to be prepared.'"
"Why is that, Mommy?" Sprout asked as his confusion returned.
The glasses wearing mare was all too happy to explain. "It's simple. If you're scared, you're far more likely to be cautious and consider your actions carefully. Letting your curiosity run wild often leads to trouble. That is why we grown-ups specifically tell you to listen to us when we say not to go to places such as the bathroom or to touch things like the toilet. We say such things because we want to ensure you are less likely to do such things and make us worry," With her little lecture concluded, she then said to the foals. "Now then: Sprout, I will get you dried off and changed."
The red coated coat looked down at his diaper to see that it had swelled up. Probably from absorbing all that toilet water during the flush cycle. "Okay, Mommy." He agreed, blushing a bit (even though it was hard to see it through his already naturally red coat).
"Sunny and Hitch," Phyllis continued. "You two can wait outside until I'm done with Sprout. Then you can all go back to playing together for a little while. But then it'll be time for naps, and then your parents will be here to pick you up."
"Can we have snack time before nap time, Mommy?" Sprout pleaded with the same puppy dog eyed look he'd seen Hitch use earlier. "I was getting hungry. That's why I wanted to find you."
Phyllis couldn't say no to her son when he gave her such a look. "Sure, snack time before nap time sounds good to me. So after you're changed, you can go play with Sunny and Hitch while I prepare the snacks," She proceeded to boop his snout. "But first, we'd better change you before you get a rash from sitting in that soggy diaper for too long."
It didn't take long for Sprout to be dried off and placed into a new, freshly powdered diaper. He soon exited the bathroom with his mommy, glad to have her back and eager to get back to playing now that he'd gotten what he wanted out of her.
However, as little Hitch looked to the toilet from outside the bathroom, he suddenly felt something stir inside of him. There was something he decided he wanted to do, or at least try to do. "Um, Mrs. Cloverleaf?" He asked, looking a tad bit sheepish and uncertain.
"What is it, sugarcube?" Phyllis sweetly asked the colt with a light yellowish-orange coat.
"I was just wondering," Hitch shuffled his hooves. "Could I maybe, um..." He tried to think of how best to say what he wanted to say next.
Fortunately, it seemed like Phyllis could read the little colt's mind as she trotted up to him with a smile. "Oh? Did you want to try and use the toilet like a big colt? You and your friends are getting to that age where you're to start transitioning away from diapers."
Hitch nodded his head. "Uh, yeah. I just wanna see what it's like, you know. Be more like the grown-ups. If that's okay with you."
"Of course it is," Phyllis agreed as she happily bent down and scooped the colt up. "It's great to see you stepping up and taking charge. Sunny and Sprout could learn a lot from you," She then looked to the other two earth ponies. "You two just wait here for a little bit. Hitch will be out to play with you shortly, I promise." Then she took Hitch into the bathroom and shut the door behind him, leaving Sunny and Sprout to just sit there in equal looks of amazement and confusion.
"What's wrong with diapers?" Sprout wondered aloud when he and Sunny were alone.
Sunny shrugged her hooves. The orange coated filly hadn't given any thought at all to the padded undergarments or to being without them. "Don't know, they seem fine to me. Although, what Hitch is doing sounds... interesting, I guess."
Sprout wasn't so convinced as he stuck his tongue out. "I don't think so. I hope my mommy doesn't try to make me give up my diapers anytime soon. And if your daddy tries to make my mommy do so, he's gonna have another thing coming."
Sunny simply replied. "I don't think my daddy is gonna make me do what Hitch is doing right now, and I think he knows it's best not to try to tell your mommy how she should raise you. They yell about enough things as it is and I don't like it. I just want everypony to get along."
Soon afterward came the sound of the toilet flushing again, though what this could possibly mean neither foal had any idea.
A moment or so later, a confident looking Hitch strolled out of the bathroom. He was still wearing his diaper, but he seemed exceptionally proud of himself for some reason. "I did it! And it was so easy!" He boasted to his friends. "You two should try it sometime, it's actually not that bad."
But Sunny and Sprout, in a rare moment of actually agreeing with each other about something, just jointly stuck out their tongues and said. "Nah!" Then they ran off together, giggling and laughing.
Hitch chased after the two as he shouted! "Hey, don't you wanna be a big pony like me?!"
Phyllis simply watched the whole scene unfold as she chuckled to herself. It warmed her heart to see that the three foals could get along and have fun together despite things like these. And to think, Argyle was always not so subtly ribbing her for saying his methods of raising Sunny were wrong.
Oh well, that was a discussion to have with the single parent on some other occasion. For right now, the glasses wearing earth pony mare was just content with the knowledge that at least one of the foals was on the path to future success. As for the other two, well... they would surely come around in time.
Author's Note
Yes, I know this story is probably a little bit cliche, but I tried my best to make it more about the interactions between Sunny, Hitch and Sprout. And I wanted to try and put Phyllis in at least a more neutral light. Yes, I probably could've used Argyle for a story like this, but I feel like Phyllis deserved the spotlight.
The other tag was specifically so as to keep Phyllis' appearance a secret, rather than spoil it outright.
