//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: The adventures at the Crystal Playplace // Story: Finding Sunburst // by Foal Star //------------------------------// Twilight was stunned as she stood there, looking at where Sunburst had disappeared as Sunswirl asked, “What happened to him?” ”It...it was an accident.” Twilight finally commented. “What do you mean?! I thought that was the cure!” Sunswirl exclaimed in frustration. Twilight turned to Sunswirl as she confessed, “No, I couldn't find a cure. That was a potion that would bring me to the source of the powder.” “Did you say powder?” Sunswirl asked. Twilight nodded. “Yes I found an unusual magical powder of some sort at the park. I think that somepony turned Sunburst into a foal using that substance.” Sunswirl whispered, “And um…the potion you made, would it teleport you to the source of where the powder was created?” “Precisely, I was to drink it and find where the powder was made.” Twilight sighed with regret in her voice. Sunstone, in a worried tone commented, “So, Sunburst could be anywhere?” Twilight looked down in shame as she continued, “Yes, and what’s worse is that I just hoofed him over to the pony responsible for turning him into a foal.” ”I’m sure that whoever did turn him into a foal would do no harm. They’d better not, for their sake!” Sunswirl remarked. The two other ponies turned to her with surprised looks. As Sunswirl whispered, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get so worked up. It’s just, I’m worried about him.” Twilight went over and hugged Sunswirl to calm her down. “It’s okay, don’t worry, we’ll find him. I’m willing to bet that whoever made that powder is still in the Crystal Empire.” Meanwhile, Flurry Heart was now standing on her hind legs and pressing her forehooves on the bars of her crib. Looking at the adults with a confused look she mumbled. “The adwlts say Sunnybuwst is missin.” “Thas impossible, he was jus hewe a few minutes ago.” Gemstone replied as she was getting up from underneath her foal blanket. Flurry Heart sat back down as she continued, “Well we can’t jus stay hewe. I told him ta make a mess and he disappeawed becawse of me,“ She wanted to wail but she held back as she looked towards the back of her room to a window. She shouted at Gemstone, “We gots ta find him!” “So wha ya goin ta do?” Gemstone asked. Flurry Heart looked towards the window, “I’m goin to go find my bestest fwiend!” Gemstone was sitting up now as she asked, “But how? I can’t see how we goin to find Sunnybuwst by owaselves, we can’t do it!” But Flurry Heart replied, “Yea we can, I helped stop that meanie Qween Cwysalis.” Gemstone rolled around the crib and laughed as she replied, “Yeaw wight, I heawd it was Thowax who beat the meanie Chwysalis.” Flurry got flustered and shouted, “So what if he did? Ya goin to hewp me go find Sunnybuwst ow not?” Gemstone put a hoof in her mouth and suckled it for a while as drool came from her mouth. Then she mumbled, “Fine Fluwwy, bu we gonna get in big twouble. We pwobably gonna get spankies.” Flurry flew over and hugged her friend until their diapers scrunched together as she squealed, “Thank ya fow yow support Gemstone. Besides, we did wowse stuff befowe." Gemstone took her hoof out of her mouth and hugged Flurry Heart, “Okay, bu how we gonna get out of hewe?” Flurry Heart let go and turned towards the window in the back of her room, “We gots to fwy thwough thw window.” Gemstone gasped as she asked, “Wha, ya can do that?!” “Yea we can, ya twust me, wight?” Flurry replied as she took a hold of Gemstone’s hoof. Gemstone nodded as she took hold of Flurry’s back. Flurry lifted her wings and she started flapping, before anypony had a chance to notice she soared straight through the window. Sunburst woke up with a jolt. He looked around trying to figure out where he was and only saw fabric and felt wheels turning below him. He looked down to see he was strapped into a seat. "I'm in a stroller, but how did I get here?” He thought, blinking a few times as he gazed at the sky overhead and looked, around looking at ponies walking around him, and buildings on the side of the street. All of a sudden he stopped in front of a giant building, the front doors had big painted suns covering it, and a sign overhead read, “Crystal Playplace.” Sunburst was escorted in by a stallion, who went to the front desk, and was soon talking to a bright and happy purple coated crystal pony with blue eyes and a long pink tail and a flowing pink mane. The mare smiled. “Hello, and welcome to my daycare. Are you here to have me take care of your little one?" “Of course, I just came to drop of my son.” The stallion replied with a nervous tone. Sunburst looked around trying to figure out who the stallion was, but for whatever reason he couldn’t see him. The mare bent down towards Sunburst with her sweet blue eyes. She smiled and cooed, “Why hello there, what’s your name?” For some reason Sunburst tried answering her, but only babble and spit came out of his mouth. She giggled and ruffled his mane as she replied, “What an intelligent little foal,” She then picked him up and held him close, checking his diaper as she replied,”All dry, that’s good.” Sunburst wasn’t concerned about his diaper as he tried to turn his head to see the stallion. However, all he heard was the clang of a bag of bits being thrown hastily onto a table as the stallion replied, “I should pick him up in a hour or two. And his name’s Sunshine.” The stallion rode off as the mare looked back with a startled look, “Well it looks like you dad was in a hurry,” She then turned back and nuzzled his belly making him laugh out loud while she whispered, “But that's okay, we’re going to have so much fun here!” Sunburst was then taken into the middle of a giant blue room, with clouds and rainbows painted all over the walls. There was changing tables placed in the back, and cribs on the right side of the room. The ground itself was covered in plastic toys and other babies and toddlers running around. The mare dropped him down on the padded floor as he looked up at her with drool coming down his chin. She couldn't help but daww, “Oh, you look just like that wizard Sunburst, and so did you dad. I wonder if you two are related. Sunburst never mentioned he had any younger relatives though,” She didn’t dwell on the matter for long though, instant opting to wipe his mouth and hug him as she replied, “Well, no matter. Just have fun, okay?” Sunburst looked around the room, the other foals gave him surprised faces. He blushed and put his front hooves on top of his diaper, scrunching it and creating loud crinkling noises. Soon two crystal pony colts approached him. One was a dark blue colt with a small lock of silver for a mane and tail and silver eyes. The other was a white colt with a brown mane and tail that looked like they’d never been styled, and a blue pair of eyes. As these two came up to him, he began to shake all over as he felt a stream of something hot and wet soak his diaper. The foal with the blue coat was the first to speak, “Hey, dun be newvous. We jus wan ta say hi.” Sunburst gulped and mumbled, “Hi.” The two colts giggled as the blue colt asked, “Wha ya name?” Sunburst whimpered, “I Sunnybuwst.” The two colts gasped as the white coated one asked, “Wa,i ya Sunnybuwst, the weat wizawd?” The two foals laughed out loud again, which caused Sunburst to shout, “Why ya waughing?” The white coated colt started to look around as he replied, “Thewe’s no way ya Sunnybuwst. He’s a bi pony.” “I was a bi pony but got tuwned into a fowl.” Sunburst cried out loud, hoping they’d believe him. “Weally ya did?” The dark blue ccoated olt asked in astonishment as he wiped his face with his arm. The white coated colt picked up a teething ring as he asked, “But didn’t ya daddy bwoing ya hewe?” “I don know, Twilie teleported me and I woke in a stwolla. I don know how I got hewe.”Sunburst whimpered and began scrunching his soggy diaper. The white coated colt placed the teething ring in his mouth as he asked, “Ya mean, ya was foalnapped?!” Sunburst quickly took his hooves off his diaper and whimpered, “I dun know.” The dark blue coated colt started picking his nose as he mumbled, “Well, wha ya going ta do? Ya can’t staw hewe, if ya do that mystious pony will take ya away." Sunburst felt boggers coming down his nose and he reluctantly wiped his face with a hoof, “I nee to get back to the Cwystal Pawace.” The white coated colt (who still chewing on a rubber ring) mumbled, “Ya can cwimb thwough the window in the back.” He pointed to a giant window. Sunburst started to bounce on his soggy diaper as he babbled. “I guess, bu it wooks too high." The dark blue coated colt got up on his hind legs and shouted, “We can hewp ya get ya up thewe!” The white coated colt dropped his teething ring and turned to a pile of giant foam blocks, “Yeah, I thin I hawe an idea.” ”Wha’s ya idea?” Sunburst asked, as he bounced more excitedly in his now noticeably yellow tinted diaper. The white coated colt turned to Sunburst and told him, “We can use the giant foam bwocks and stack them ontop of each otha, and ya can cwimb them.” Sunburst turned to the blocks and clapped his hooves, before he saw that his hooves were covered in snot and drool. He began wiping them on the floor as he asked, “So how do we move them? They so big.” “Well we gots ta wowk togetha, and we betta huwy, my mommy is pwobably comin soon!” The white coatted colt replied as he started sucking his right hoof again. The three colts then began crawling across the room and with their combined strength began pushing one of the blocks towards the window. Flurry Heart and Gemstone were now crawling through the streets of the Crystal Empire, but they’d hadn’t gone far when they heard Twilight shout, “Flurry Heart, come back here!” Flurry quickly turned and flew behind a building, she looked over to see that Twilight and the other mares were now frantically combing the streets, looking for the foals. Gemstone looked down the street and whispered to Flurry, “My mommy is wookin fow me, we shouwd go back.” Flurry Heart replied, “You can go if ya want to, bu I got ta find Sunnybuwst.” She crawled away as Gemstone reluctantly followed. The two foals continued down the road, and soon they came spotted a mare and a stallion dressed in black cloaks. The cloaks made it impossible to tell what the ponies looked like or what species they were. The foals reluctantly hid behind a wall, Gemstone was going to say something but Flurry placed a pacifier in her mouth (she also placed a giant pink pacifier in her mouth). As they suckled they watched as mare asked the stallion, “So, you found Sunburst?” “Yeah but he’s a foal. He wasn't supposed to be a foal. Something must’ve interfered with it. Something of strong magical origin.” The stallion whispered frantically. The mare shouted, “I know that, you're the one who made the powder! Don’t you think you’ve embarrassed me enough for one day?!” “Well, I wasn’t the one who dropped it,” The stallion snapped back. “And keep your voice down, do you want us to be caught?” The mare reluctantly sighed and looked left and right to make sure they hadn’t been overheard. “Alright, well maybe we can still make this work.” “How?” The stallion asked. The mare quickly replied by saying, “We have the cure. We can change him back and everything will work out like it was supposed to.” “Yes, but we only have one, if we turn him back now we won’t have a chance to ask him.” The stallion replied with concern in his voice. The mare replied rather hesitantly, “Maybe this is better than just turning him into a colt.” The stallion seemed to shake his head as he whispered, “We can discuss this later. As for right now though, what should we do?" “Well, where is he?” The mare asked with concern. “He’s at the daycare center called Crystal Playplace.” Suddenly Gemstone’s eyes lit up, and she took the pacifier from her mouth as she babbled to Flurry Heart, “I go thewe all the time.” The mare didn’t pick up what Gemstone had said, so she whispered to the stallion, “I need to get back before they notice I'm gone. You get Sunburst and meet me back at the house. Got it?” “Are you sure?” The stallion whispered, sounding noticeably concerned. As if he was having second thoughts about his actions.. “I’m sure, now get going!” The mare shouted, and the two ponies went their separate ways. Flurry turned to Gemstone and asked, “Can ya get us to the Cwstal Pwaypwace?” Gemstone nodded and they began crawling down another street as she mumbled, “It’s not that faw fwom hewe.” She then looked over and asked Flurry Heart, “Who awe those ponies and wha wewe thewe talkin abou?” Flurry Heart shrugged, “I don know, bu we betta huwwy and find Sunnybuwst befowe they do.” But just then a shadow fell over the foals, and scooped them into an aura of magic. Sunburst grunted, as he pushed the final block into place. The other two colts were tuckered out, lying on the ground with their giant pudgy bellies moving up and down. Their diapers were wet and yellow as well (though not as uncomfortable as Sunburst’s, he was starting to get a rash). Sunburst giggled at the sight realizing that they were actual foals. The dark coated blue one whimpered, “I tiwed, awe we done?” Sunburst looked up, seeing the stairs of foam blocks and said, “Yeah, we done!” The white coated colt got up and yawned, “Now if ya goin back, ya goin to need some stuff.” The dark blue coated colt waddled over with a small diaper bag in his mouth, and gave it to Sunburst. Sunburst looked inside and found a few extra diapers, a bottle of milk, a pacifier and a rabbit plushie. He smiled, “Most of these things are useless, but they were so thoughtful.” The dark blue coated colt then replied, “Thas all I can get. I hope thas enough fow ya journey.” Sunburst smiled as he tied the bag around his back and hugged the dark blue coated colt’s belly, “Than ya. I wouldn't have been able to do this without ya.” The white coated colt sleepily smacked his lips and mumbled, “Ya welcome.” Sunburst let go of the blue coated colt and asked, “I neva got ya names. Who awe ya?” The white colt coated giggled and replied, “I Pumice.” The dark blue coated colt replied while rubbing his eyes, “I Tuquoiwse.” Sunburst smiled as he replied, “Well it’s gweat ta see ya both. I wish we could spend mowe time togeth.” The colts turned to the mare who was gathering the foals for their naps. Pumice told Sunburst, “We goin to cwy to get hew attenion. You get out of hewe." Turquoise continued, “We tiwed anaywas, ya betta go.” The two colts went over to the mare and began bawling, just as they’d said! As the mare rushed over to them, Sunburst took his bag and climbed the foam blocks. With his fat, foalish body, it was quite a struggle. He eventually got to the window and saw a bed of flowers outside. He gulped, looking down at them, and he closed his eyes. He was just about to jump when two giant hooves caught him and brought him back into the building. Meanwhile, the two fillies soon found themselves in a stroller being pushed by the strange stallion from earlier. Flurry tried to get out, but she was deep underneath a foal blanket and strapped in, along with Gemstone who was whimpering and sucking her hoof! ”I scawed, Fwuwwy! What if the stawion is goin ta fowl nap us?!” Flurry hugged her friend and whispered, “We gots ta be bwave, besides he may wead us ta Sunnybuwst." They soon came upon Crystal Playplace, where they entered and the purple mare turned and gasped, “You’re Sunny’s father, right?!” She asked the stallion. The fillies heard the gruff stallion reply, “Yeah, I am.” The mare sighed as she went to a crib and plucked a slumbering orange coated foal from the crib. As he woke he began to wail. She quickly hushed him, took him over to the stallion and told him, “I need to tell you, he tried to climb out the window. But I caught him before he could escape.” The stallion took Sunburst with his magic, the fillies unfortunately couldn’t see him as he asked, “Was he hurt?” “No, he’s perfectly fine,” The mare replied sincerely, “But I’m deeply sorry for the fact that he almost slipped away from me. I will even give you back the bits you paid as compensation for my negligence.” The gruff stallion voice replied, “No, it’s fine. He’s happy and seems okay. Thank you for watching him.” “It was no problem,” The mare told the stallion. “Besides that, he had a few wet diapers, but otherwise he was a perfect little angel.” She then curiously peered inside the stroller to see the other foals, and Gemstone squealed upon seeing the blue eyes as she shouted, "Nana!" The mare in charge of the daycare smiled, “Oh, hello Gemstone it’s great to see you too. I guess Sunshine is your new friend, how nice,” She then turned to Flurry Heart and gasped,””Wait, is that Princess Flurry Heart?! What are you doing with her?!” The foals heard the stallion quickly respond, “I found these two wandering the streets, alone. I think it’s best I leave them here with you until Twilight comes by to get them. She should be here soon.” If the mare suspected anything was wrong she didn’t seem to show it, she simply told the stallion, “Very well, I’ll make sure that these two are looked after, thank you for bringing them here, foals shouldn’t be wandering the streets unsupervised, it’s not safe,” Peering in again, she saw them with their eyes drifting and gently suckling their hooves as she cooed, “From the looks of things they look exhausted, probably worn out from wandering around.” The mare picked the two fillies up, and Flurry turned her head, finally getting a chance to see the mysterious stallion. He was a bright yellow in coat color with dark purple eyes, and a bright orange mane styled into a perfect buzz cut, with clouds of blue mist for a cutie mark. But then she turned to the orange coated foal, realizing that he was Sunburst! The foals began wailing, as they tried to break away from the big ponies holding them! The strange stallion took hold of Sunburst, as he hushed him and strapped him into the stroller, while the mare placed the two now screaming fillies into a crib and slipped pacifiers in their mouths. Sunburst looked up at the stallion, and eyed him as he realized he looked familiar. But soon a yellow pacifier was placed in his mouth and a purple plush dragon was placed into his tiny hooves. The stallion placed Sunburst back into stroller and whispered, “There we go Sunshine. You're going to be fine, Daddy is here.” Sunburst gasped, as the pacifier fell from his mouth! He realised who this stallion was now! He babbled, “Dada?” The mare dawwed as she whispered, “Was that his first word?” The stallion blushed, “Yeah, it was,” He then turned and replied, “Well, I better get going, thank you again for watching him.” “Come back soon,” The mare cooed at Sunburst. “And no more climbing out of windows, okay?” For some reason, Sunburst began to forget about Flurry and seemed to want more attention from the big ponies. He decided to hug his plushie and placed his mouth on it eliciting more dawws from the big ponies. “I never thought getting all this attention would feel so good.” He thought, not seeming to find it odd that he wasn’t concerned about Flurry Heart or the stallion claiming to be his father. As the big ponies were fussing over Sunburst, Flurry Heart struggled to not go to sleep. She looked over at Gemstone who was succumbing to the warm foal blanket and the pacifier in her mouth. Clearly, she would be no help. The nanny soon came over to Flurry and smiled, “Oh, don’t worry, I know you’re wet.” The mare picked up Flurry Heart, who was wailing and beating her wings. But the mare was used to fussy foals, as quickly put Flurry’s pacifier back in her mouth, calming her down after a few angry suckles. “Darn these pacifiers, but crying isn’t helping anyways.” Flurry thought, as the mare began to change the baby alicorn’s wet blue diaper, striping it off, as placed foal cream and foal powder all over her little rump. Flurry Heart giggled seeing how this new mare changed her just as good as her mommy did, and she even kicked and cooed at the caretaker, making the mare daww and pinch the little alicorn's cheeks. After getting a new clean white diaper around Flurry Heart’s rump the mare gently took her and placed her by Gemstone as she cooed,”There, all done little princess.” And set her next to the green coated filly who was already in a deep sleep. Flurry Heart sighed, as she closed her eyes and waited until the mare was gone. Then she stood up to see Sunburst in the stroller being pushed away by the mysterious stallion. She cursed and looked sideways to see that the window was still open, so she lifted her wings. She looked down at Gemstone, still sleeping and whispered, “I sowie, bu I got ta go wescue Sunnybuwst. Than ya fow bein a gweat fwiend.” She then took off, flying through the open window in pursuit of Sunburst!