“Okay, so I just have to take care of this technicolor filly-pegasus-unicorn-thing until the runner beats the Labyrinth, or until the thirteen hours are up,” Sarah told herself, half sure that she was capable of such a task. “Can't be that bad.”
Boy, was she wrong.
First, the filly was hungry, and Sarah had next to no idea what horses, or ponies as Jareth had insisted, were supposed to eat. She tried mashing some carrots, but the filly wouldn't touch it. Oatmeal was apparently out of the question as well. It wasn't until she tried applesauce that the purple pony-thing actually ate. After that, Sarah had enough babysitting experience to know to burp the filly, so that was rather painless, except for the squirming and stronger-than-it-should-be kicking that the tiny thing managed to muster.
Fortunately, the filly did not need to be changed just yet. Sarah dreaded the moment that came, knowing that babies of any species don't take to well to anything that's not their mother changing them. She also dreaded the kick that filly could produce, if simply squirming was enough to leave a bruise or two.
She had given up on trying to contain the filly mere moments after Jareth left. The filly constantly buzzed her wings to move around, and if Sarah grabbed her, then the filly would simply teleport out of her grip, giggling the entire time. “At least glitter is not a side effect of her teleportation,” Sarah said.
Whenever Sarah babysat, even for Jareth's “charges”, she always made it a point to NEVER let any of them go upstairs. It's not that the upstairs was dangerous, just that it was so much easier to keep track of them when they were within earshot, and downstairs had a significant lack of doors that always came in handy for any emergencies. That's why Sarah started to get frustrated when the filly began to buzz up the stairs.
“No, no little pony-thing!” Sarah had cried out when the filly had almost reached the top step. When the filly turned around to look at her, it had reminded Sarah of the way Toby had turned around to look at her when she fought for him. She had to fight back a couple of fearful tears. It felt like the Escher room all over again, except this time, it would be someone else's baby at stake, and that felt worse than having put her brother in danger.
“Sawa,” the filly said. This did melt Sarah's heart again, but it quickly began to freeze over in fear again as the filly was still at the top of the stairs. She didn't calm down until the filly buzzed her way back down the stairs, hanging her head slightly, her own way of saying “sorry”, Sarah supposed.
Sarah needed to relax, so she walked to the living room, comforted by hearing a tiny “clippity-clop” of little hooves behind her. After comfortably slumping herself into an armchair, she turned on the TV, and the filly was instantly hypnotized.
“Works every time,” Sarah said.
As the filly watched the mind numbingly hypnotic news that was already on when Sarah turned the TV on, she noticed something familiar about the filly. The wings and lack of a mark on her flank had thrown her off, and she'd been to concerned with caring for the filly to notice, but perhaps it was possible. Knowing the kind of trouble Jareth attracts, it most likely was.
Sarah walked over to the TV, and pulled out a DVD from her secret compartment. It had to be secret, because Toby certainly wouldn't watch it, and her parents would be mortified to find that their daughter was reverting back to childhood. It was her guilty pleasure, she supposed. When she plugged in the DVD, the familiar tune played, and the filly was fascinated in a whole new way.
“Puffy!” the filly shouted upon seeing Pinkie Pie.
“Well,” Sarah thought, “she is pretty puffy.”
“Rawry!” Rarity was on screen, being dramatic as usual.
“That's one way to say it,” Sarah giggled.
“Apple!” Applejack, naturally.
“Almost there,” Sarah encouraged, knowing there was no way for a baby to pronounce “Jack”.
“Soft!”
“I guess Fluttershy is rather soft.”
“Dashy!” That one caught Sarah off guard.
“I'm surprised you can articulate that.”
Then the filly started trying to get into the TV. Then Sarah realized that they must not have television in her world. But it surprised her when on the screen, rather than the Mane 6, it showed Princess Celestia.
“Tia!” the filly cried. “Wan' Tia!”
Sarah realized that the more she let this play, the more the filly would beg to be with Princess Celestia, which Sarah could not do, no matter how much she wished. She turned off the TV, and picked up the filly, and sang gently to her, trying to calm her down.
“Hush little filly, don't say a word, Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird.” True, Sarah's singing voice was not great, but it worked to stop the filly from crying, at least. That would simply have to do, for now.