//------------------------------// // Little Gaia Everfree // Story: A Little Monster // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// Everyone could only watch in awe as the infant Gloriosa crawled across the grass spouting baby talk as she tried look around the camp. After they had all wanted to get away from the magic, the fact that one of the members of Camp Everfree's staff was now a baby, caused their hairs to stand on end as their eyebrows and muscled tensed up. No-one had any words for what had happened to her, and everyone just stood frozen to their spots as they just gawked at the blue-haired baby. "Hi there!" Pinkie finally broke the silence by sliding up to Gloriosa, squatting down, and picking her up in her arms. "Ba ba goo gaa, Pinkie Pie. Ooo ba ba wa li wi ooo goo gah?" Gloriosa simply looked at Pinkie's eyes and reached out for her nose, gently booping it with her fingers as she waved her arms in front of her. She giggled upon touching the pink teen's nose and babbled some more so that Pinkie could have a conversation with her. "She's Gloriosa, alright." Pinkie Pie turned towards the rest of the Rainbooms and showed her off. "Whatever freaky-deaky magic turned her into a baby, she kinda likes it. Says it makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside." "I'm so confused..." Timber scratched his head as he regrouped with the other girls, looking down at Gloriosa in Pinkie's arms. "First of all, how did she get turned into a baby like this; second, why did she scream in pain when we were bringing her back to Camp Everfree; and third, HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW TO UNDERSTAND BABY TALK, PINKIE PIE?!" He threw his arms out and shook them as he tried to figure out what was happening before his eyes. "Silly, Timber. I can answer all of those questions." Pinkie Pie gave Gloriosa to Rarity and flashed Timber a toothy grin. "One, magic did it; two, magic did it; three, I've been taking care of little babies Pound and Pumpkin for an awful long time now, so baby talk is practically a whole 'nother language for me. You should take it up too. It's a great way to learn how to communicate with your kids at an early age." "Pinkie Pie. The first answers you gave weren't really all that specific." Sunset Shimmer put her hand on Pinkie's shoulders and looked towards Timber behind her. "I have to apologise for Pinkie. She can get a little bit... weird sometimes." "Yeah, but we've gotten used to it." Rainbow Dash put her arms behind her head and grinned. "Besides, she's actually pretty funny once you get used to how random she is." "Anyway, I'm really sorry about what happened to your sister, Timber." Sunset Shimmer's mouth contorted into a frown as she put her hand on Gloriosa's belly and heard her giggling again. "I'm not really sure about whether or not there's a cure for what happened and I feel that I'm partially responsible for all of this." "What do you mean you're responsible for all of this?" Timber asked, watching Sunset Shimmer grow less and less confident as she hung her head and eyed her toes. "None of this was your fault, Sunset. You had problems with magic. I get that. So did Gloriosa. I warned her not to use those stones, but she just took all of 'em anyway. She was going to just get herself and all of the guests hurt if she went too far." "Timber, I appreciate you trying to cheer me up, but just look at what Gloriosa's become now." Sunset Shimmer jabbed a finger at Gloriosa, who fussed and wriggled around in Rarity's hold as she tried to touch the ground. "Now that she's a baby, you're the ONLY member of Camp Everfree's staff left. Filthy Rich is going to be back soon and if you don't have the money in time, everything's going to fall apart. You'll lose the camp, you'll have to move to the city, and most importantly, your family's entire lineage is going to be destroyed without her helping you out." "Sunset, just calm down for a second." Timber watched as Sunset slumped her shoulders down in front of her and flopped onto her haunches. "I get that you're upset and worried about me and the camp, but that doesn't mean the experience has to be ruined for you or your friends at Canterlot High. Even if this might be the last time you ever come to the camp, I just wanted to make sure that your stay was at least enjoyable if not memorable." Sunset didn't respond and merely looked over at Gloriosa, who finally broke free of Rarity's hands and fell towards the ground. Seconds before she hit, vines rapidly burst up from the earth and formed a small slope to cushion the fall. She slid down it and landed before Sunset, looking up at her as she tugged at her trousers. She picked the baby up and handed her back to Timber. "Look, Sunset, we're not entirely out of this yet." Timber picked up Gloriosa and held her in his arms. He put her close to her chest and felt her nuzzle into his chest and coo gently. "We've still got Diamond Tiara with us and she says that she's been with Filthy Rich for practically all her life. I'm sure that we can find some way to raise the money we need in time." He looked down at the baby, who in return, gazed into his eyes and beamed, reaching up for his face with her tiny arms. "And, come to think of it, Glori's actually pretty cute like this." "Yeah. She's super-duper adora-cute!" Pinkie Pie bounced up to Gloriosa and played with her cheeks. "Who's a good Gloriosa Daisy? You are! Yes you are. Coochie coochie coo!" As she tickled Gloriosa's belly, she heard the baby laugh like a maniac as she thrashed around in Timber's arms. "Pinkie Pie's right." Fluttershy stepped forward and put her hand on Gloriosa's chest as she bent down and gave her a smile. "She looks rather cute like this. I almost don't want to see her grow up again." "Come on 'round, girls! Say hi to little Gloriosa Daisy!" Pinkie Pie beckoned to the rest of the Rainbooms flexing her arms in and out to attract the girls' attention. "That's right, c'mon! Give her a little wave, play with her face, try talking in baby if you can, just anything to make her happy, really." The girls all gathered around Gloriosa and looked down on her. All of their faces instantly melted into smiles as they gushed at the sight of the blue-haired infant and began to play with her face and watch her smile with every action they did. As they all saw as she raised her tiny arms at them, they didn't realise that there were vines growing around them all. "Uh, girls?" Timber saw the vines wiggle and squirm around the group of teenagers. "You might wanna get out of there before one of you gets hurt." "Why, Timber? What could possibly..." Sunset turned around and saw the vines fencing the Rainbooms off from the rest of the camp. "Wait, what?!" She stepped back and bumped into Rarity, almost knocking Gloriosa out of her friend's grip as she gazed at the plantlife. "Huh?" Pinkie Pie pulled her head up from Gloriosa and looked at the rings of vines around her and her friends. "What's up with this forest? I don't remember these things being here." "Well, whatever's up, I don't really seem to like it." Rainbow Dash tried to push the vines away, but no matter how much force she put into separating the vines from each other, they wouldn't budge an inch. "Hey! Why won't they move?! Girls! Give me a hand with this!" The other Rainbooms came over to Rainbow Dash and added their strength to her own, putting their own hands on the vines as they tried to pull them apart from each other. Even with all of the added arms and legs being used on the ring of brown vines, nobody was making any process and began to sweat as their efforts proved to be fruitless. Some even grinded and grit their teeth together as they grunted and groaned in their attempts to pry the vines away, but it still didn't help them much. As the girls tried to break free, Twilight fluttered off of Sunset's shoulders and flew down to Gloriosa, who was now sitting in the middle of her walls of flora. She flew down towards her and got on all fours as she tapped on her shoulders and attracted her attention. Once she saw Gloriosa turn to face her, she began conversing with her in infantile gibberish. Gloriosa responded with her own slew of baby talk as she crossed her legs and smiled at Twilight. She tipped and tilted her hands as she had a conversation with the raven-winged baby and giggled from time to time as they let words fly at each other. As she spoke, her hands glowed green and twinkled in the sunlight as she wobbled on the spot and placed her hands on the ground. Twilight saw Gloriosa expel magic into the ground and watched as it sparked all around her and the other Rainbooms. The spread of green lightning in the ground soon struck the vines, causing them to retract back into the earth and disappear from sight altogether. After that, she smiled even wider and clapped her own hands, sending black and blue bolts of magic into the air and into the sky, where they too disappeared from sight shortly afterwards. "Mama! Mama" Twilight called for Sunset and waved her arms around, trying to grab the attention of her big sister. Once she saw Sunset come over and pick her up, she pointed down towards Gloriosa. "Pway!" "What's that, Twilight?" Sunset leaned in closer to Twilight's mouth and almost put her ears to the infant's mouth. "Pway wid hew!" Twilight pointed down to Gloriosa, who was picked up by Timber Spruce. She turned around and wiggled around in Sunset's grip and wiggled her fingers towards her. "Wanna pway wid hew! Pway! Pway!" Sunset smirked at Timber as she brought Twilight over to him and Gloriosa. "Looks like Twilight's got herself a new playmate, huh, Timber?" "Looks that way." Timber watched Twilight fly out of Sunset's hold and flutter up to Gloriosa, holding her tiny hands as they both went back down to the ground and crawled off. "Still, I don't know what to do about this. Gloriosa's my sister, and now she's a baby again. What's gonna happen between me and her? Am I gonna be her dad?" "I wouldn't put it past her, but you know how babies are." Sunset Shimmer watched both Gloriosa and Twilight crawl off towards the tents, planting their hands and kneecaps down one after the other as they moved across the grass. "Once they have a mama or dada, they just get really clingy with them. It's really up to Gloriosa to decide who her mom or dad is." "That's not really what I'm worried about." Timber put his hand on Sunset's shoulder as he looked towards the two playing babies as they sat down and began to play pattycake with each other. "I'm more worried about how this is gonna affect us paying off Filthy Rich's debt. Now that she's a little infant, she's going to need supplies, toys to keep her busy, and lots of other stuff that's gonna rip a lot of money out from under us." "Well, I don't think that you should worry about the supplies for now." Sunset simply smiled as the two infants continued to high-five each other and clap their hands together as they kept their rhythm up. "I can supply you with some of mine for the time that we're here. After all, a problem shared is a problem halved, right?" "Really, Sunset?" Timber asked. "You would really give me some of your stuff because of what happened to Gloriosa?" "Of course I would, Timber." Sunset nodded and took a deep breath. "We weren't to know that Gloriosa was holding magic, or that it would turn her into a magical baby like Twilight is now. But what use is there dwelling on the past when the future's what we have to look forward to?" She turned towards Twilight and Gloriosa and walked up to them, kneeling down as she kept her gaze focused on Timber as the other girls. "Even when all of this stuff's been said and done and even after the Friendship Games happened with Principal Cinch getting locked up for blackmail, there's still gotta be someone to clean up the mess afterwards, right? Maybe it's asking a bit too much to be given a magic baby that isn't like the regular ones we see playing with their parents, but that's doesn't mean that we can just leave them alone, right? Even babies with the power to re-shape the world need all of the love and affection they can get from us, so who are we to deny them their right to grow up and have a good life?" "When you put it like that, you're right, Sunset." Timber grew a smile as he walked up to her and slung his arm around her shoulders. "Y'know, you would make a great president with that attitude." "Yeah!" Pinkie Pie ran over to the two of them and burst out from behind them. "Imagine it: President Sunset Shimmer; the kindest, most forgiving, and smartest person in the White House! You'd be great at it, Sunset!" "Alright, Pinkie Pie, dear. Let's not get too carried away with Sunset Shimmer and her many accolades." Rarity massaged Pinkie's shoulders and pulled her away from Sunset and Timber. "But she is right on what she said. Even if infants could potentially destroy the world, they still need to be raised the right way. That's why we're all trying our best to help Twilight grow back up so that she can be a beloved member of society again." "You're all really that devoted to her, aren't you?" Timber Spruce raised an eyebrow as he looked down at Twilight as she gave Gloriosa a hug and pulled her in close to her chest. He watched as his little sister now gave Twilight a hug of her own before he knelt down and picked her up again. "Well, that's really inspired my confidence as well." He ruffled her hair and saw her look up at him. "Well, sis, looks like I'm gonna be taking care of you for a while, huh?" "Big bwubba!" Gloriosa babbled and planted her face into Timber's body, wrapping her hands around his hips as she brushed her head against him. "Aww... isn't that adorable?" Fluttershy smiled and gushed at how Gloriosa gave Timber all of her affection as the two of them cuddled together with each other. "Big brother? So, I'm not your dad, Gloriosa?" Timber asked. "Nope! Big bwudda forevew!" Gloriosa shook her head and threw her arms up in delight. Everyone could only watch as Timber held Gloriosa and walked off with her, Twilight, and Sunset as they all made their way towards another area of the camp. Now that there were two magic babies, the campers were all beginning to think about the future, and all of the possible outcomes that would come in the future with Timber taking care of Gloriosa, and how she would grow a relationship with Twilight. With their many thoughts running through their minds, they didn't even feel the cold wind blowing through their hairs and blowing the girls' skirts up.