//------------------------------//
// The Cutest of the Littlebolts 
// Story: A Little Monster 
// by Shadowmane PX-41 
//------------------------------//

The next day, Sunset and Twilight were playing together. Sunset was giving Twilight all of the toys that she could find, while Twilight cooed and babbled as she used them. She shook them, fiddled with them, and sometimes put them in her mouth, sucking deftly on them.

"Oh, Twilight. You're such a cute little baby, aren't you?" Sunset picked Twilight up and booped her nose. "Yes, you are. Yes, you are." She tickled her little armpits, hearing her squeal and laugh, thrashing her arms and legs around. "You know I'm never gonna leave you, right? Mama Sunset's always gonna be here for you, Twilight."

Twilight reached up for Sunset's face, grabbed onto it, and spoke in baby talk. She was glad to have Twilight, and her tone of voice perfectly conveyed her feelings towards her. After she was done, she slipped her thumb into her mouth and one of the toys with her free hand.

"Well, we've still got a few more minutes before lunch." Sunset took a quick glance at the phone in her pocket. "What do you want to do until then, Twilight?"

Twilight turned around and scanned the room with her little eyes. She saw a little pink blanket on the ground and pointed towards it, dropping the toy out of her hand as she tried to fly off of Sunset's arms. As she lifted her finger up, her horn glowed bright, illuminating the blanket and lifting it into the air. As she pulled her arm back by her side, Twilight's magic made the fabric float over towards her.

"Aw..." Sunset's heart melted at the sight. "Does my little Twilight want to be wrapped up?" She nuzzled Twilight's face and set her and the blanket down on the floor. "Alright then. Just hold still for a second."

Sunset Shimmer grabbed both sides of the blanket and held them high. Then, she pulled both ends around Twilight and began to wrap her up in a soft pink cocoon, making sure to wrap her wings up as well. Once Sunset was done, she picked the now blanketed Twilight up and walked over towards a pacifier, plopping it into Twilight's mouth.

"Twilight, if cuteness could kill, you would be considered a weapon of mass destruction." Sunset swooned as she watched Twilight snuggle into her woollen confines, sucking on her pacifier. "You would, wouldn't you? You little devil." She chuckled.

Suddenly, a few knocks came from the nursery door. It opened shortly after, with Cadence standing on the other side.

"Sunset? Do you have a minute?" she asked.

"Yeah." Sunset walked over towards Cadence with Twilight pressed against her body. "What is it, Cadence?"

"There's a few people in the living room that want to see you." Cadence turned towards the stairs. "Come on. We'll both go down together."

Sunset and Cadence both walked down the stairs together, leaning against the rails. Once they got to the bottom, they turned to the left and went into the living room. Once inside, the first thing that they saw, sitting down on the couches and chairs were Indigo Zap, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, Sunny Flare, and Sugarcoat. All of them were wearing casual clothes and looked at Sunset and Twilight together.

"Hey, Sunset! How's it going, girl?" Indigo waved from her recliner.

"Sah, dude?" Lemon plucked her headphones from her head once Sunset came into the room.

"Oh. Hello, you five." Sunset pulled up a chair from the wall and sat down, laying Twilight down in her laps once she sat down. "What brings you here?"

"We just wanted to see how you were doing." Sugarcoat pushed her glasses to her face. "Ever since you came back from Camp Everfree, the rest of the Rainbooms told us that you were feeling a bit upset. So, we decided to exploit the loophole in your sentence and comfort you and Twilight."

"Clever as always, Sugarcoat." Sunset smiled. "I take it you're getting the highest marks in Crystal Prep now that Twilight's, well... too young to be in an academy?" She pointed down to her.

"She's getting straight A's in almost every subject." Sunny Flare lifted the cup of tea in her hands and gave it a small sip. "That and none of the students need to push themselves so hard now that Cinch is out of the picture. It's like we've all been freed from our cages; to roam in a world where we can pursue knowledge at our own leisures."

"You have to admit, Sunny can wax poetic," said Cadence in the background as she helped Shining Armor with the washing up. "That's why she's got the best marks in CPA's drama class. If I didn't know any better, I say that she was Shakespeare's long-lost cousin or something."

"Yeah..." Sunset idly nodded at Cadence.

"Anyways, how's our favourite Littlebolt doing?" Lemon Zest stood up and gently tousled Twilight's hair.

"Littlebolt?" Sunset cocked an eyebrow.

"She came up with the nickname on the way here. Twilight was still a Shadowbolt when she opened that little trinket and became that adorable little monster, so, yeah." Indigo joined Lemon. "Honestly, I think that she's the only Littlebolt on the planet, but you never know. One of us could make a device that sucks up magic, then when we release it, we could turn into cute little babies with demon wings and a badass horn like that."

"Sorry to crush your dreams, Indigo, but Twilight came up with that fancy thing. The chances of us doing what Twilight did are less than of us winning the lottery. And you know how hard it is to win that rip-off cash-grab." Sour Sweet crossed her arms. "Still, though, it would be cute to be a little squirt again. Just crawling around, drooling, and making your parents' lives a living hell as you try to have fun, stripping them of having any chance of it."

"No. No more magic babies." Sunset shook her head and held Twilight close. "I already messed up because I took Twilight with me to Camp Everfree. I'm not about to let any of you five repeat my mistakes and suffer the same fate as Twilight and Gloriosa Daisy."

"Alright, alright, alright! We get it! Geez, the Rainbooms were less depressing than that when they told us about little Glori." Indigo took a few steps back and pushed her arms out. "Still, though, it's a nice thought."

"Yes, but we all have to grow up and move on, Indigo." Sunset gently rubbed Twilight's back and watched her begin to close her eyes. "That's the point of starting out as a baby. You're only like that for a few years, then when you begin to walk and talk, everything gets harder and harder. You get away with less stuff than you could before and the lessons you face at school can be quite taxing on your brain."

"True. It has been nineteen years since the five of us had what Twilight's got right now." Sunny Flare nodded and put her tea down. "She's got it easy, though. No-one in the history of the human race has had the privilege of being a baby two times in their life." She walked over and gave Twilight a gentle rub on her cheek. "She's gotta live it up while she still can, because once she grows up, she won't even remember a thing about the freedom she used to have. It'll be lost in a tidal wave of ageing as she climbs back up the ladder, re-joins Crystal Prep Academy, and hopefully have a better time than when she used to work for Abacus."

"Hear, hear." Sugarcoat nodded and cracked a small smile. "None of us want Twilight's second foray into the teenager world to be as harsh as it was with ex-Principal Cinch."

"Yeah. We don't want a sweet, adorable, sickening little monster like her in the hands of someone like Principal Bitch." Sour Sweet shook her head and gave Twilight a peck on the forehead. "Aww... She's so cute that I could throw up my breakfast."

"I hope you don't, Sour." Sunset stood up and carried Twilight towards the kitchen. "It's time for Twilight to have lunch and I'd never forgive you if you spoiled her appetite."

"Can we help her with her lunch?" Lemon Zest shook her hips so fast that if she had a tail, it would be wagging like crazy. "I'd love to see little Twilight get her face messy with her baby food."

"I suppose you could help, Lemon." Sunset smiled as she unwrapped Twilight from the high chair and plucked the pacifier from her mouth. "You could help get Twilight's bottle warmed up while I'm feeding her."

"Can I help?" Indigo chimed in.

"Sure." Sunset nodded. "Someone's gotta keep Twilight entertained while I get her food and open it up." She began to open the cabinets up and rummage around. "You can keep Twilight happy can't you, Indigo?"

"No problem!" Indigo put her hands to her side and puffed out her chest. "A Crystal Prep Shadowbolt can handle any challenge." She loudly proclaimed before leaning in to Twilight. "Hey, kid. How's it hanging?"

Twilight giggled and fired a small beam of blue light at Indigo's face, causing her buzzsaw hairstyle explode into a poofy mess that stuck out in all directions. She waved her arms and pulled her high chair tray towards her, shuffling around in her seat.

"Real funny..." Indigo shoved her hands into her hair and furiously re-styled it back into her buzzsaw style. "You're lucky that you're a baby and that it's super easy to get my hair like this."

While Indigo messed around with Twilight, Sunset was busy shuffling little phials of herbs and spices around as she tried to find the baby food. Despite the fact that she was now a part of the Sparkle family, she was still trying to figure out where all of the food was properly stored. Lemon Zest, on the other hand, had already found the milk in the fridge and poured it into a bottle, sticking it into the microwave once she had applied a rubber top to it.

"So, you want me to play with your face?" Indigo asked, raising one of her eyebrows at Twilight. When she was met with baby talk, she just shrugged. "Alright. I'll take that as a yes." She reached in for her little cheeks and gave them a gentle pinch, wiggling around. "Now where's that little smile I love so much?" She forced the corners of Twilight's mouth up, making a large toothless grin. Once she let go, Twilight began to laugh again. "There it is! There's Twily's little smile!"

"Alright, Twilight. Grub's up!" Sunset came back with a few jars of baby food and a small plastic spoon. She set the jars down, opened them up, and dipped the spoon inside one of them. "Thanks for the help, Indigo."

"No prob, Sunset." Indigo stepped aside. "Anything for my favourite Littlebolt."

"I still think that the nickname sounds ridiculous!" Sour Sweet called from the living room.

"Says you!" Both Indigo and Lemon said in perfect sync.

"Open up, Twilight..." Sunset cooed and lifted the spoon towards Twilight's mouth, slipping it in gently. She waited for her to swallow the food but noticed that she wasn't. "Hey, c'mon, girl. This is good for you. We don't want another visit from Mr. Tickle now, do we?" She lifted her other arm and flexed her fingers.

Twilight swallowed the food in her mouth, clapping her hands together as she waited for the next mouthful. Sunset gave her another spoonful, and she eagerly put the spoon in her mouth, inhaling the mush whenever it was presented to her. It didn't take her long to finish a jar, but her speed had allowed for her to get some of the food on her face. As she felt it dribble down her cheeks, she began to rub it into her skin, laughing as she painted herself with her food.

"Twilight. Don't play with your food..." Sunset took a baby wipe from the packet and slid it across Twilight's face, removing the stains that she had been playing with. "There we go. There's a good girl." She then proceeded to feed Twilight with food from another jar. "You're a fast little eater, aren't you?"

Twilight simply nodded and took another mouthful of food. When the spoon came out of her mouth that time, she lifted both of her hands and reached out for the jars of baby food. Auras enveloped them and with a yank of Twilight's tiny hands, she pulled the entire jar over to her and put her lips around it, drinking from the food and getting a lot of it on her nose and mouth.

"Twilight! No!" Sunset stumbled forward and pulled the jar out of Twilight's mouth while she was halfway through. "You're gonna make yourself sick if you eat your food like that."

"Still, though. You've gotta give her some credit." Lemon Zest took the heated bottle out of the microwave once it beeped and flashed. "You don't see many babies eat food from the jar itself."

"Well, there's a good reason for that." Sunset cleaned up Twilight again and lifted her out of the high chair. "Babies have smaller tummies than that of a grown man or woman like the five of us. If she'd emptied her jar, she would've either been really fat or made herself throw up with all the excess gunk she was slurping. That's why spoon-feeding exists; to stop babies from eating more than their weight in food."

"But that doesn't mean she can't have a bottle too, right?" Lemon Zest held the hot bottle in her hand and passed it over to Sunset. "A baby's gotta drink too, right?"

"That's exactly right." Sunset put the rubber nipple of the bottle into Twilight's mouth, watching her suckle gently on it and receive a reward of warm milk. "Even though Twilight looked like she was about to eat the entire jar, that doesn't mean she can't drink her fill as well. She needs to balance out eating and drinking just as much as we do."

Twilight cooed gently as she continued to suck on the bottle. Every suck she took was rewarded with milk and she eventually took it out of Sunset's hand and held onto it as she jiggled her legs around. Her wings fluttered gently and her horn and cyan mask hummed with light as she drank almost half of the contents. She began to close her eyes as she drank, slipping away into her own little world as the warm and sweet taste danced around in her mouth before sliding down her throat. If she could've spoken, then she would've said that the drink was the best in the world and that everyone should try it out, but being a baby, all that she could do was drink and babble as she finished the bottle off.

"All gone." Sunset took the bottle out once it was empty and slung Twilight over her shoulder. She gave the baby a few pats on the back, hearing her let out a loud burp shortly afterwards. "There we go, Twilight. Now you're full and ready to get back to playing with your toys."

"Hey. Not that it's any trouble, or anything, but do you think that we could all watch Twilight play with you, Sunset?" Sunny Flare walked into the kitchen. "We all want to know that she's in good hands after the Friendship Games out, and we'd really like to offer a helping hand for how we treated you and your school back then."

"It's perfectly fine, Shadowbolts." Sunset put the high chair and jars away, while putting the bottle into the sink. "You didn't mean to say all those things about us back then. You were just under Cinch's impression, and you let her rules mould you all into the rival school archetype." She carried Twilight into the living room. "Still, I'm sure that the five of you were still nice girls to be with even before the Friendship Games. You might've just needed a push in the right direction, that's all."

"Alright!" Indigo fist-pumped and watched as the other Shadowbolts all stood up and circled around Sunset and Twilight.

There was a brief silence for a few moments until Sugarcoat broke it by saying, "So, which one is her room?"

Sunset just cracked a small smile and turned towards the stairs again. "Follow me, girls."

Sunset and the Shadowbolts all went up the stairs together, almost huddled up to each other as they formed a hexagonal pattern.

Despite the fact that Sunset had told the Rainbooms to leave her alone so that she could recuperate, she was still happy to know that they were still looking out for her, even if they had decided to send the Shadowbolts over to help her ease the pain. Sunset wanted to thank the girls for the deed, but with Twilight beginning to shake herself around in her grasp, Sunset knew that duty was calling and that she was the one to answer.