//------------------------------// // First Impressions // Story: Little Jolts of Shadow // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// The Shadowbolts, after all having been set down in their new multi-coloured, strain-on-the-eyes room could only move forward. In their infantile states, everything in their line of sight looked giant to them. Even some of the smallest-looking items like pacifiers and balls seemed like it would have taken both of their hands to hold them properly. Lemon Zest, out of all of them, was the most enamoured with the room, a big smile planted on her face as she examined plush toys, small books, the cribs and playpens, and even a small plastic slide that had been set up just for them. With so much to do, it was hard for her to choose where to start, but knowing her, she wouldn't be thinking about it for long. Sour Sweet on the other hand, curiously eyed up a small teddy bear, her hand planted on its' fuzzy belly. Even when she was a teenager, she had a bear like that one. When things seemed bleak, when she felt that life was there solely to beat her down, she always turned to her bear, aptly titled "Mr Fuzzykins." In a way, this new bear seemed almost identical to that one. She pulled it into a hug, finding solace in the fact that she was nothing more than a baby now, unable to control herself or do things for herself. "Y'know, as much as I admire the room, I'm still not happy with this whole baby thing." Indigo folded her arms. "I mean, I was one of the most athletic, most nimble, top-of-the-game Crystal Preppers out there. Now look at me! I'm small, I'm in diapers, and worst of all, I'm fat again!" "You were fat, Indigo?" Sugarcoat lifted a brow. "No duh, I was fat, Sugarcoat. Babies are born fat and chubby. That much I do remember about 'em," said Indigo. "That's why, when we grow up, we're glad to have gotten rid of all the excess baggage." "And you're worried about this, why?" Sugarcoat's arms were still tightly folded. "Get over it, Indigo. You've got at least eighteen years to work it off when you grow up." "If we grow up. IF we grow up, Sugarcoat." Indigo seethed. "By the time we get back to our regular ages, Sunset and her friends will be going off to university for all we know, living happy-go-lucky lives while we're stuck in cribs, being rocked to sleep while being read bedtime stories or sung lullabies..." "Oh, stop being such a party pooper, Indy," Lemon called from a distance, before hurling herself down the slide, giggling all the while. Ironically, as soon as she stopped, she ended up unloading a mess in her own diaper. "Speaking of which, Sunset? I uh... I kinda need some help here." "Wait, as in right now right now?" Sunset asked, eyes wearily gazing at said Shadowbolt's diaper. "B-but, I'm not prepared! I've never had to change a diaper before!" "Wait, you haven't?" Lemon Zest cocked a brow at Sunset. "You've never been to 'that class' or babysat for someone before?" "Well, considering that this magic stuff happened literally today, I've had pretty much no time to prepare for this kind of stuff, so, you'll have to forgive me if I mess this kinda stuff up." Sunset trudged over to Lemon Zest, picked her up, and carried her over towards the changing table. "Ah, c'mon, Sunset. How hard can it be to change me?" Lemon Zest asked. Sunset planted Lemon on the table, laying her down and reaching for the straps that kept her diaper secure. Sunset bit on her lip a tad as she took off Lemon's clothes, tore the diaper straps and removed the soiled undergarment from Lemon's butt. Sparing absolutely no time at all, she turned her attention to the trash can, opened the lid with the foot pedal, and dumped the poop-ridden diaper into it. "Okay. That's the easy part done." Sunset opened a drawer and pulled out a wet wipe, using it to clean off the remnants of Lemon's mess. It quickly met its' demise in the unholy trash bin shortly afterwards. "Now. About this next step..." Sunset pulled out a fresh diaper out from the drawer next to the other one, placing it down on the table. "You're almost there, Sunset." Lemon just put her hands behind her head and closed her eyes. "If anything, this is just as much of a cakewalk." "Easy for you to say, Lemon." Sunset just rolled her eyes and begun to slide the diaper under Lemon's butt, only for her to push it back out to her. "Wait, what?" "Aren't we forgetting something?" Lemon lifted a brow. "Y'know, it's not as easy as just putting it on me and tightening it up." "But you just said that it—" "There's a reason why the product's called baby powder, Sunset." Lemon pointed towards a nearby bottle of the aforementioned powder. "You use it so that it makes these things a lot more comfortable. Because let's be honest, it's no fun to get diaper rash; even if you can think about it." "Well, excuse me, little miss smarty no-pants..." Sunset muttered to herself as she took the bottle of powder, sprinkling a sizeable helping onto the diaper. This time, when she moved to put it under Lemon's rump, it was gladly accepted by the pink-skinned, green-haired baby girl. "There. Now it's just a matter of putting it together..." She reached for one corner with one hand, then the other with her other hand. That just left the singular flap hanging out. With nothing but her thumbs, Sunset managed to take the last part of the diaper and put it with the sides. "There we go. Now we've just gotta find... something to keep this all... together." "Oh my stars, Sunset, this is just a mess..." Sugarcoat grumbled from behind her, then started the agonising process of climbing the table, using the knobs on the handles and edges of the draws to hoist herself up. "It shouldn't be this hard to change a baby. All you need is a pin or an adhesive strap or just... something to keep this thing from falling apart." "Pins? But those hurt..." Lemon Zest rubbed her arm. "Look, I'll bail you out this time, Sunset, but only this one time. Okay?" Sugarcoat reached for the diaper that Sunset was holding, grabbed a small waist-strap that poked out of the sides, tightened it up, and planted it directly at the intersection where the three edges met. "I'm sorry, Lemon. Guess I still need to learn a few things before I'm properly ready for this whole childcare stuff." Sunset put Lemon Zest's onesie back on, then picked her up with one hand, using the other to collect Sugarcoat from the table. "Don't worry, Sunset. Day one stresses, I get it. You'll be a natural in no time." She just put on a big, almost goofy smile as she looked into Sunset's eyes. "Now, do you think you can put me down in that little pen there? There's a pretty cute-looking blanket in there and I want it." "You can just drop me off wherever you want, Sunset," Sugarcoat added. "I don't really mind at all." Sunset walked through the nursery, her moves slow and her legs stretching outward as she took each step so as not to disturb Sour, Indigo, or Sunny's exploration of the room before arriving at the playpen, putting both Lemon Zest and Sugarcoat down in the pen together. "Anywhere but here, Sunset!" Sugarcoat groaned, slapping a hand to her head. "Well, that's what you get for saying that you wanted to be put down anywhere, Sugarcoat." Sunset chuckled to herself. "Plus, I think that you need to lighten up a little and have some fun with this." "Yeah, Sugar. You've been all big-brained and no-fun. But now, you can be fun just like me!" Lemon squirmed towards the blanket she had mentioned earlier, before wrapping her and Sugarcoat up in it. "See, look at how close we are already..." "Sunset, I will pay you whatever I can to get out of this right now..." Sugarcoat whispered, before a coo from Lemon tightened the blanket around them even more, the comforting fibres burying into her body. "And exactly how do you plan to pay me? With toys and drool?" Sunset asked, laying an arm on the rails of the crib. "It's not an easy jump from teenager to baby, but magic is magic, I'm afraid. As much as I want to help you all fix this, I'm afraid that, without a proper understanding of Equestrian Magic, your stay in this room is gonna be a very long one, girls." As Sugarcoat despaired, Lemon simply squealed mutely. Sunny Flare, on the other hand, crawled through the room with a look of uncertainty on her face. The toys, colours, and everything did seem like they fit the situation at hand, but she was doubting herself more than anything else. As she came to grasp the concept of her playing and having fun with these baby toys, the rest of it seemed to be more of a mystery than anything else, even more so than she cared to admit it. She was not a big fan of surprises; especially magical ones. She took a look at the rest of her peers, at Sour Sweet clutching the teddy bear and carrying it around with her wherever she went; at Indigo Zap, who was still sat in place, pouting with folded arms at the scenario; and then at Lemon Zest and Sugarcoat, where one was extremely happy to be in this place while the other seemed more upset than anything. "So many mixed feelings... Happiness, sadness, anger, and neutrality. How am I supposed to feel about going forward? About doing things in this room?" Sunny asked herself as she looked at the nearby set of building blocks. "I guess... maybe an attempt at using these things would help?" Sunny toddled over towards the building blocks, sitting herself down in front of the cluster that laid before her. All different shapes and sizes, some with numbers, some with letters, some even had pictures on them, but that didn't matter much to her right now. All that was on her mind was appraising her situation, so she took the first two blocks that she could find and held them in her hands, checking each and every face from top to bottom. Nothing much seemed to catch her attention about looking at it, so she decided to put one on top of the other. Sunny thought to herself, looking at the rest of the blocks that had been strewn about. As much as she felt indifferent, she wanted to do something with them, so she took as many as she could and brought them closer to her and the diminutive tower that she had built. Following that, Sunny decided to arrange the blocks by colour, then by what was actually on it. All the while, as she got lost in her little organization, she was completely oblivious to everything around her. "There we go. All colour-coded, letter-coded, number-coded, even picture coded too." Sunny smiled, looking at her little accomplishment. But that quickly seemed to fade as she took another look at the blocks, this time, with her head tilted slightly to the side. "Now what do I do with them?" As that thought wracked her brain, she felt a hand plant itself on her shoulder. A small one, roughly around her size. As she turned around, she noticed Sour Sweet was right there, the bear still clutched in her other hand. "Oh, Sour. What is it?" "Can I... uh... join you?" She asked, her eyes meekly scanning the ground before they locked with Sunny's again. "If that's not too much trouble, I mean?" "Join me?" Sunny's eyes widened, caught off guard more by the way she said it more than anything. "I don't see why not, Sour. But why do you wanna join me with these blocks?" "Well, I've been spending some time with Mr Cuddlebutt and I've had some time to think. Namely, to think about what I was like before all of this magic stuff happened," Sour said, holding the bear up in front of Sunny's eyes. "And... well, I wanna start over. I want to have a new life. One where I'm not an angry, hormonal mess of a teenager who gets aggressive at the drop of a hat. I just... I want to have a happy life." "A happy life?" Sunny parroted. "So that's why you looked so complacent earlier... You're... okay with being a baby again?" Sour Sweet just nodded, words failing to come out of her words as she just tightened her grip on Mr Cuddlebutt. She then watched as Sunny took her hand and invited her to her side. She just gave Sunny a smile as she crawled over and sat down with her. "Thank you, Sunny," said Sour as she took the first block that she could find and put it by the others, forming what looked like a small square. "No problem, Sour. I'm glad to know that you're enjoying this." Sunny Flare took another block and placed it at the top of the tower that jutted from the square they were forming. She still didn't know what to make of the situation herself, but at least she could find solace in the fact that some of her friends were okay with being infants again. Sour Sweet, lulled into the block-related playtime did her best to grow the square more and more, planting blocks around the perimeter until she thought it was big enough. Then, once all that was said and done, she took the next set and put it on top of some of the others, forming the start of what looked like a pyramid of blocks. All the while, her new teddy bear, Mr Cuddlebutt never fell from her hands. She had only just been like this for a few moments, but as long as she was with him, everything seemed to be that little bit more enjoyable for her. Now that the others were busy, Indigo Zap was all alone, sat in the middle of the room, still upset with her current scenario. She just watched as the others did what they were doing. She saw Sunny and Sour continue constructing their blocky pyramid, then watched as Lemon played in the pen with Sugarcoat being her bemused audience member. "Stupid magic..." Indigo huffed to herself. "Why'd it have to do this to us? We were much happier before it came to town." As soon as she stopped saying that, Sunset came over and sat down with her. "You know, Indigo, there's a saying that you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. This isn't all a bad thing, you know." Sunset said, her hand laid on Indigo's shoulders. "In fact, you should consider yourself very lucky. You get to get out of Crystal Prep for a while, you get to do whatever you want in this room without anyone judging you." "It's still pretty degrading..." Indigo pouted again, turning her head from Sunset's. "It was a great honour to be one of Crystal Prep's best athletes. I was always leading the team to big things, no matter the occasion; not just the Friendship Games. And now, well... how am I supposed to be an athlete when I'm so tiny?!" She threw her arms out, fighting back some tears. "Indigo... All that I can say is that I'm sorry. I truly, truly am. But there's nothing that we can do to fix this at the moment." Sunset picked Indigo up, saw that her tears were beginning to grow, and pulled her into a big hug, patting her back. "I know that you hate this, but please don't take it out on me or make life a misery for any of us." "Sunset, it's more than just that why I'm so angry and upset about this. I had a LIFE! I had FRIENDS! I had a FAMILY! And now they're all... all gone!" Indigo then started to cry her eyes out, bawling like the baby that she was as Sunset just took her to her chest, letting her be the sponge that would soak up all of Indigo's tears. "It's alright, Indigo. Just let it all out. That's why I'm here..." Sunset continued to pat Indigo's back, the tears she let out completely drenching her shirt in the process. At least it was better than having to deal with another messed diaper. Indigo continued to cry until she lost all of the strength in her body. Usually, she'd be committed to whatever she was getting riled up about, but in the case with Sunset, it only took her around fifteen to twenty minutes before she fell asleep, completely drained by all of her sorrow. "There we go, Indigo." Sunset stood back up, carrying Indigo towards the nearest crib. She laid her down, tucked her in, and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. "Have a nice nap, girl. You'll feel much better after it, trust me." She stood by Indigo's side, watching as she entered a deeper state of slumber, letting out small snores as she drifted further and further into the realm of dreamland. Don't worry about this, girls. I'll find a way to make this right someday, but until that day comes, I just hope that I can do my best for all of you. Sunset looked around at the rest of her 'kids'. Sour and Sunny had finished their pyramid of building blocks at long last, while Lemon Zest had curled up into a ball with the blanket over her. Sugarcoat just sat there, waiting for someone to free her from her prison. As much as it is a daunting experience to be turned into babies again right as you were about to graduate or move to your next years, I want you all to know that what I'm doing makes you comfortable with it all. Trust me on that...