//------------------------------// // Daycare Dazzlings // Story: Little Jolts of Shadow // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// "Now, the first thing that you should know about being a baby, girls, is that you don't ever have to do anything to get everything you could ever want," said Adagio, leading the group across the day-care room. "Before that magic hit us, we used to have to work for what we wanted, but now, when we're this small and—dare I say—cute, people fall head-over-heels for us and cater to our every whim. No singing needed, no fingers lifted, everything is ripe for the taking here." "If you have any doubts about being a baby, don't. There's nothing to have doubts about," Aria spoke up next. "Don't ever think about growing up, because that's only gonna make your life a misery. If you try so hard to think about something that's gone, you're just gonna be crying all the time." "I know that it can be a bit of a shock to the system having to change, but it's definitely a blessing. I mean, think about it, who in their life ever gets to be a baby twice?" Sonata asked, looking at the Shadowbolts. "Nobody! So we have to take this chance, run with it, be happy with what's happened and forget about the future." "You three seem like you're pretty biased towards this whole baby thing..." Sugarcoat rolled her eyes at the Dazzlings. "Always acting like everything's so happy-go-lucky, forgetting about the consequences that this magic had on you, the fact that you have to grow up all over again." "Well, that's because being grown-up sucks." Aria huffed, gruffly lowering her brows. "You have to do everything for yourself. No-one bothers to give you a helping hand in anything. And in this world, you amount to nothing when you grow up. At least, we didn't amount to anything when we grew up." "That's why we're happy that this magic stuff changed us." Sonata grinned from ear to ear. "Now that we're babies, we get all of the love and adoration we ever wanted. That's why we don't ever want to grow up. We want to stay babies forever because we know that the grown-up world is a nasty place and that being young means being happy." "So... if I may ask, what exactly caused you to think this way?" Sunny Flare asked, tipping a hand outward. "I don't want to tell you. It involves Sunset and her friends and that's all you need to know." Adagio turned back, a small fire lit in both of her eyes. "Forget about them. Move on and be happy without them. You don't need them in your lives." "See, that's the thing. They got us into this mess, so they're gonna get us out of it too." Indigo crossed her arms. "Look, whatever gripes you might have had with Sunset and her friends before, all I can say is that we're sorry. But don't try and talk smack about the girl who's trying to fix us." "Why would you want her to fix you?" Adagio asked, her hands stretching around the day-care. "You're free in this room. You can play with anything that you want, with anyone you want. You don't have to worry about the world. The world doesn't have to worry about you. Just enjoy babyhood once again. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, girls. Why would you ever want to give it up?" The Shadowbolts tried to find a response to Adagio's question, but nothing came to mind. Even with all that they knew about their past lives, they could tell that there was going to be no easy way to restore it. They were to be chained within these bodies until they grew back up naturally, or if a miracle was pulled. "Trust us, girls. You'll feel so much happier when you rediscover the innocence and carefree nature of being a baby..." Adagio crawled off again, resuming the tour of the day-care. "Now, then. Let's talk about exactly what kind of facilities this place has to offer, shall we?" "First, I think we should talk about the needs that'll be catered for while we're on the subject." She sat down and looked around the room. "At Little Miracles, you don't ever have to worry about the bad parts of being young. Messed diapers? Instantly changed upon request. Hungry or thirsty? There's designated feeding times unless it's urgent. No matter what you're struggling with, the staff here are gonna make sure that everything's alright." As soon as she finished saying it, she unloaded a large poop into her diaper. "Oh, hang on a second. Can I get some help here?" She called out to the room, and Sweet Embrace hastily scooped her off towards the changing tables. "In terms of what you can do, every single toy in the room is yours. No-one here owns anything special, so there's no need to fight over things," said Aria, taking over for Adagio. "As for your imagination, just go wild with it. That's what it's there for, right?" "Yep! Imagination is super-duper fun!" Lemon Zest nodded vigorously. "You can be whatever you wanna be, do whatever you wanna do, it's a total blast if you let yourself go like that." "See? She gets it." Aria came over to Lemon Zest and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "The rest of you should think more like Lemon." "The day I think like Lemon Zest is the day that I admit that Crystal Prep was a bad school to go to." Sugarcoat cocked a brow, tilted her head, and glared. "We're not really that close on the outside. More like... acquaintances." "Eh, suit yourself." Aria shrugged. As she did, Adagio was returned to the group, clean diaper and all. "Sorry about that. Just one of the habits of infancy." Adagio patted her new diaper, the thickness evident from how much it crinkled at her touch. "That just comes with the whole package, I'm afraid." "We're used to it by this point." Sonata pointed out, as she too let loose a load into her diaper. "Oop! There goes another one. I need a change too!" She waved to Warm Embrace, and she was carted off to the table thanks to the caretaker's hands. "Next, I think it's clear to talk about the timetables," said Adagio as she continued to lead the group around the room. "While you're free to do what you want, there's designated timeslots for feeding, baths, and naptime. You don't need to worry too much about those. Just play along with them." She eventually led the group towards the garden door, laying a hand on the glass. "You can go outside any time you like, but you'll be carried in when it's time for any of the stuff on the timetable." "By the way, naptime is pretty strict, so if you're still awake, just try and do nothing. You don't wanna end up getting spanked like Sonata did when she tried to stay awake last week..." Aria murmured. "I heard that!" Sonata called from afar, the changing just about done as she was lifted back up and over towards the Shadowbolts. "By now, you should've seen some of the landmarks on our little trip around the room," said Adagio. "The Plush Shape Fort where you can climb to your hearts' content; the Ball Corner where you can roll, bounce, all kinds of ball-related activities; Cuddle Alcove, where there are plushies coming out of the wazoo. One of Sonata's favourite spots, mind you." "It's where I met Mr Stuffington. It's the perfect place to have a little plushie party if you know what I mean..." Sonata nudged Sour's shoulder playfully, taking notice of Mr Cuddlebutt in her tiny hands. "There's also the Toybox, a needed addition in any room like this. Any toys that you don't like the look of, well there's sure to be something in here that catches your eye." Adagio held a hand out towards a large blue chest with a golden lining. "Who knows? You might find something in there that you love with all of your heart and never want to be without..." "Then there's the last little place that we have on our current part of the tour. Nothing really special about it whatsoever, but it's a quiet place where you can read some books or do some things with paper and junk." Aria just jabbed towards a small table and bookshelf, wherein only one baby was seated, idyllically dotting a paper with a crayon. "And that, ladies, is the end of that part of the tour. There's more to see, but we'll get to that in time." "For now, we're the Dazzlings; Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk. Welcome to Little Miracles, girls." Adagio said as she brought her sisters to her side, wrapping her arms around them. Lemon Zest could only give them a round of applause for a tour like that, with the other Shadowbolts just sitting there, giving her looks. When she saw their response, she just lifted her shoulders and said, "What?" "Now what do we do?" Sunny Flare asked her peers. The tour had come and gone so quickly that she hadn't really given herself some time to decide where she'd go and what to do with herself. "I call dibs on the Cuddle Alcove!" Lemon dashed over towards the bunch of plushies. "H-hey! Wait up!" Sour Sweet reached after Lemon, then gave chase. Not so as to catch her friend, but rather to surround herself with the other stuffed animals. Heaven only knew that Mr Cuddlebutt could use a friend or two. "Well, I'd say that we've done our job pretty well, haven't we?" Adagio said to the three remaining Shadowbolts. "If you girls need any more questions asked, feel free to let us know. But for now, I think it's time to just let yourselves run wild." She slipped the pacifier back into her mouth, as did Aria and Sonata with theirs, before the three of them crawled off together, leaving Sunny, Sugar, and Indigo alone. Sunny didn't even say anything and went off to follow Adagio, Aria, and Sonata, leaving Indigo and Sugar behind. The two remaining Shadowbolts looked at each other for a while, before they chose to pursue Sunny and the Dazzlings. As time passed, the Shadowbolts found themselves going around the room, jumping from one area to the next. While Lemon and Sour spent most of their time cuddling the plushies, they soon found themselves at a scattering of building blocks, while Sunny spent her time at the nearby drawing table. With Indigo and Sugarcoat being the only ones left over, all they could really do was keep with the Dazzlings, seeing as how they were the only other ones that they could understand. And, if anything, they needed something to do that would take their minds off of the whole thing. "So, how long have you been babies for?" Sugarcoat asked, clambering up the plush shapes to where Adagio was sitting. "I'd say maybe a month now. Two months, even?" Adagio levelled her hand, tilting it like a seesaw. "Honestly, I stopped counting once we discovered how wonderful the sensation is." "And you've not wanted to grow up since?" Sugarcoat cocked a brow, planting her hands down. "You've always wanted to stay a baby, from the moment you were struck by magic?" "Well, not entirely. We did want to grow back up the day we were hit," said Aria, poking her head out from underneath the fort. "But then we found this place, Little Miracles, and we've never been happier to be young again." "You'd be too, given how we've had to live for ourselves as grown-ups. After the Battle of the Bands at Canterlot High, we were pretty much up a creek without a paddle. Or a boat for that matter." Sonata curled some hair around her fingers. "We couldn't do anything, we couldn't afford anything, things were just about to come apart at the seams for us." "Wait, you were living ALONE?!" Indigo Zap's eyes bulged so much that they almost popped out of her sockets. "You mean you don't have any parents or somebody to take care of you?" "Mmhmm." Sonata nodded in response, hands clasping together. "Now that we're babies, we're the complete opposite of down-and-out, run-down singers with a failed music career. And, since there's no-one to come and collect us, we live here full time!" "It's so cozy, girls. You've no idea." Adagio tipped her hand towards Indigo and Sour. "When you're alone like us, playtime is all the time. There's no such thing as a break. You'll never be bored or wanting something to do. Never overthinking things or worrying about yourself or others. When you're a baby in a place like this, no owners means no heartbreak." "And it's really reassuring to know that you never need to go anywhere either. We can stay in this nursery 24/7. No ifs, ands, or buts," said Sonata. "So what you're saying is that, the longer you stay as a baby, the less you have to feel worried about?" Sugarcoat lifted her finger. "Yes. The magic is a bit weird at first, but all this time passed and now we're perfectly fine with it. You'll be the same before long if everything plays out the same way." Adagio stuffed her pacifier back in her mouth and resumed suckling it, letting herself drift further and further into her own little landscape as she climbed off of the fort and went away. "We'll be... the same?" Indigo fretted, looking into Sugarcoat's eyes with a look of unease on her face. She could tell from Sugar's own reactions that she felt the same way. "We'll be happy to be babies?" But just as the two begun to think about that, they saw that every baby in the room was being picked up and carried away by the three caretakers and towards a row of high chairs. One after another, the little ones were plucked from their playtimes and planted on the seats. In the kerfuffle, Indigo and Sugarcoat were carried as well, along with the Dazzlings. And within no time at all, everyone was seated on the chairs, subjects to what they could only presume as feeding time. An opened jar of applesauce, followed with similar jars confirmed the Shadowbolts' theory. They were going to be fed whether they liked it or not and they couldn't do a thing about it. The first spoon was filled with food and poised at Lemon Zest's mouth. She opened wide and swallowed the mush, letting it trickle down her throat and land in her gullet, letting out a coo of affection afterwards. "Mmm... Yummy!" She said, letting the aftertaste kick in. "Girls, you've gotta try this stuff. It's amazing!" "For you, maybe. But f—" Indigo was cut off by another spoon burying its' way into her mouth. The food went down her throat as usual, but she ended up coughing in response instead. "Oh, just go with it, Indigo. Stop complaining." Sour opened her mouth freely and plucked another morsel of food from the spoon hanging around her mouth. "The less that you fret, the easier it'll get." "You're just saying that because of that bear you're always holding onto..." Sugarcoat muttered before a spoonful slipped its' way into her mouth so smoothly that she didn't even notice. "Hey. Mr Cuddlebutt's one of the only things that's keeping me from going utterly crazy here. Don't shoot him down, Sugarcoat." Sour snapped her head towards Sugar, letting a fiery glare burn into her skull. "Calm down, you two. No need for any tempers to flare here..." Warm Embrace reached over to both Sour and Sugarcoat, gently tapping on their shoulders. As soon as the two Shadowbolts were warned by Warm, whatever it was that had been on their mind quickly dissolved into nothingness. Once the conflict had been resolved, she went back to tend to the others, letting the cycle of feeding resume once more. After that, the Shadowbolts didn't have a lot to say. One, because of how draining the experience was for them without Sunset and her friends; Two, due to the fact that all of the other babies outside of themselves and the Dazzlings behaved as such; And three, because the food was beginning to capture all of their attention. The flavours of applesauce, bananas, kiwi, all of it came together one after the other, creating a mystifying feel that didn't happen too often in their lives. And to think. All of that from mushed up, packaged baby food that they would never have tasted otherwise. Eventually, the spoons stopped coming, and the jars were sealed back up by Warm and Sweet, Loving came out from the kitchen with one of the first of many bottles. Filled with warm, white milk and sealed by a plastic top with a rubber bulb, this would be the drink that would clean the palettes of everyone involved. The first to be blessed with the taste of said bottle was Adagio, who lifted her arms and waved them around, quickly earning a lift out of her chair from Loving, who cradled her with one arm and fed her with the other. For her, it was the same old taste, but a classic regardless. She needed no prompting, no bargaining, she just drank. Eyes shut, a fuzzy feeling filled her body as she quickly emptied the bottle before everyone's eyes. All the while, the Shadowbolts were witnesses to Adagio's pleasures, still thinking about all of the words that she had been saying along with her sisters. Though the five former Crystal Prep girls had no intention of giving up Sunset for some pursuit of happiness, they were beginning to think more and more about what they were saying in terms of complacency and acceptance of their new infantile states. Just as it seemed that they were beginning to dive deeper into their realms of thought, Sugarcoat and Lemon were picked up next and fed all the same by Warm and Sweet. Sugarcoat, despite much resistance of letting herself succumb couldn't pull herself away from the drink and found no choice but to consume it. When the first few drops went down, she found herself unable to stop, as if she had lost all control of her mouth as more and more suckles drained the bottle dry. She looked over to Lemon, who had already finished ahead of time and just had herself burped by the staff, with Sugar quickly following suit. The process was then repeated for Sour, Indigo, and Sunny. Indigo, much like Sugarcoat, couldn't hold her nerve forever and caved in, while Sour and Sunny drank merely out of curiosity more than anything. All of them came to the unanimous decision however, that the taste of warm milk was akin to that of something from heaven. They were burped as well, then set back down on the padded floor with Adagio and the other two Shadowbolts, with Aria and Sonata not too far behind them. "So, how was your first meal here, girls?" Adagio asked, looking in the directions of the Shadowbolts. "It was amazing!" Lemon swung her arms into the air. "For real, I don't think I've ever had food that good in a long time! And that's saying something, considering Crystal Prep's food was golden from start to finish." "Hate to admit it, but for once, Lemon's right." Indigo Zap pointed to Lemon, a faint grin on her face. "It came as a shock for sure, but it was actually pretty darn good." "I agree with the both of them," Sunny Flare chirped. "That was a delicious little meal." "Mmhmm..." Sour and Sugarcoat both nodded as well. "See? You are starting to like this. Just like I said you would!" Adagio beamed from ear to ear before pulling Indigo into a tight hug. "W-whoa! I didn't mean I liked it THAT way!" Indigo's arms shot up at the sudden and unexpected cuddle attack, but Adagio still didn't let go. "I... I just meant that I..." Her cheeks flushed red as she tried to look away. "Oh, don't be so shy, Indy. It's totally fine." Lemon Zest joined in on the hug, adding a further layer of constriction to Indigo Zap. "You're starting to get with the program. Babies do baby things and enjoy those things. And that's completely fine." "We're... starting to enjoy this." Sugarcoat repeated those words in her mind, still unnerved and wracked with uncertainty on how it would play with the rest of her and the others' psyche. For all that she knew, the Dazzlings were right. They had been right since the moment they met them and now she was starting to see things from another perspective. The food was good. She had no right to nitpick or hate it. "So. You've all taken your first steps into being free. Let us help you take more and more." Adagio went over towards the toybox and picked some pacifiers up from the ground, before coming back over to the Shadowbolts with them in hand. "Take these. Put them in your mouth. Then, just do whatever you want." "I... suppose it wouldn't hurt." Sunny Flare reached out for one of the pacifiers, getting a firm feel for it with her tiny hands. "Seeing as how we are in this position, after all. No use trying not to commit when there's nothing else we can do." And without any other words, she planted the bulb into her mouth, sealing her mouth off with the pacifier. She gave it one suck. Then another. A third for good measure and soon became lost in the sensation. "Sunny? How is it?" Sugarcoat asked, eyes locked on Sunny as she continued to slip further and further into her little trance. "She's liking it, I can tell." Aria squirmed over, laying a hand on Sunny Flare's back. "Here, if someone gets a pacifier, they have it for as long as they physically can. At least until the next feeding time happens." "And from the looks of things, the others are starting to join her." Sonata pointed towards Sour and Lemon, who had pacifiers of their own now bobbing within their mouths, with only faint coos managing to escape the otherwise blocked part of their faces. "C'mon, girl. Don't wait for an invitation. Here, the fun never stops. Ever." She took another pacifier out of Adagio's hands and held it towards Sugarcoat. "What have we got to lose, huh?" Indigo rolled her shoulders and took the last one out of Adagio's hands, looking deep into Sugarcoat's eyes. "Listen, Sugar. If we're doing this, we have to do it together. So at least we know that we're not alone." "Right." Sugarcoat clutched her hand and put it to her chest. "On the count of three, they go in our mouths. Ready?" "One..." Indigo started the countdown, opening the palm of her hand. "Two..." Sugarcoat brought her pacifier closer and closer to her mouth. "See you on the other side, Indigo." "You too." Indigo too brought her hand within touching distance of her own mouth. "Three!" Both of the remaining babies said together, hastily jamming the pacifiers into their mouths and letting them rest. The two of them conformed into suckling them for a few moments, before, in the end, they too found contentment in using them. They both gave the thumbs-up to the Dazzlings, before being hugged by the other Shadowbolts. "Excellent. That's another step taken to your happiness, girls. I have to say, you're doing a lot better than I thought. Here I thought at least one of you would've backed out or tried to keep denying it, but you proved me wrong on that front." Adagio watched as the five Shadowbolts lined up, like students in her class. "But just in case there are any leftover bad vibes, we can still help out with that." She crawled away, making hand gestures to follow her, which the Shadowbolts did without a word. Aria and Sonata stayed by Adagio's side all the while. "You know how to play baby. Well, now it's time to think baby..." And with that, she put her crystal-back pacifier back into her mouth, as did the other two Dazzlings, leading their 'students' off to their next 'lessons'.