//------------------------------// // A Late Night Snack // Story: Little Jolts of Shadow // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// The day seemed to progress normally for the Shadowbolts. Or as normal as it could get for a group of five babies. Time seemed to just fly by for them as they let the stuff in their new room occupy their thoughts. Memories of their time with the Dazzlings still filled the rest of the gaps. If not for them, then most of them would have continued to find the ordeal to be a tough one to stomach. Eventually, the sun began to set on Canterlot, but none of the Shadowbolts knew that part. Their room had no windows, so it was hard for them to tell the time by thinking of where the sun was. Not that any of them wanted to check the time, however. They were still busy living a lifestyle that had once left them. Sour Sweet was still clinging on to Mr Cuddlebutt, Sugarcoat and Sunny Flare were creating a fort out of blocks, while Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap were trying to chase each other around the room in a two-player game of tag. Sunset had been keeping an eye on the group most of the time, leaving at only brief intervals to get something to eat for herself. Outside of her trips, she had been a vigilant caretaker for the baby Shadowbolts. If someone was having trouble, she would come and fix it. If one of the group was in need of a change, she would be right on it. And, on the odd occasion that the group got restless, she would try and entertain them in more creative ways, seeing as how they still kept some semblance of minds that could think. When she noticed the time—around 7:30PM on her phone—she started to pluck the Shadowbolts from the ground and lay them to rest in the cribs. "Okay, does anyone need anything before I leave you for the night?" Sunset asked as she hung by the door. She waited for a response, but not a single one came. "Well, goodnight then, girls." "Night, Sunset." The Shadowbolts all chimed before Sunset flipped the lights off and left the room, blanketing the Shadowbolts in a veil of darkness, blotting out the world around them as they fell into the embraces of their warm, cosy blankets. It didn't take long before they closed their eyes and went completely still in motion, save for some suckles and light yawns. Their ventures into the world of dreams was once more a joyous one, with each and every one of their dreams a far contrast to the one before it, bursting with life and colour. Some of them dreamed of other worlds, some dreamed where everything around them was alive and jolly, even some who dreamt that they were old again, but still saw the others as kids and took care of them. For Sour Sweet, though, her dreams were rudely interrupted by herself; or rather, the noise that her body was making. A low rumble came from her belly, cutting out the dream that she was having as she opened her eyes, trying to find the source of the noise. She thought that it was a monster at first, but the vibrations of her tummy said otherwise. "Lemon? Are you still awake?" Sour Sweet whispered from across the room towards Lemon's crib, only to hear a small coo come from it. "I... I have a problem." "No. Don't let the dragon take the princess, Indy..." Lemon muttered to herself, deep into her dreams. "You're the bestest-best friend and knight in the whole kingdom." "Lemon... I need your help..." Sour whispered again, but at a slightly higher pitch than usual, hoping that, in waking her, she'd wake all of the others up too. "Nngh... What is it, Sour?" Sugarcoat answered in Lemon Zest's place, still half-asleep. "Did you use your diaper again?" "No, nothing like that. If I did, I'd be crying right about now. It's something totally different to that," she said, turning her head in the darkness hoping to find Sugarcoat, yet saw nothing but a black abyss. "I'm hungry." "Hungry? In the middle of the night?" Sunny Flare woke back up, rubbing her eyes as she tried looking to Sour's crib in the darkened room. "How is that even possible?" "I don't know, but I am. And Sunset thinks that we're fast asleep, so there's no way that we're gonna be able to get any food from her." Sour blinked, pulling Mr Cuddlebutt close to her chest, causing another rumble from her stomach to sound out, reaching everyone's ears. "Well, what do you want us to do about it?" Indigo Zap asked, breaching her dream to return to the real world once again. "We're babies, we're in our cribs, and the door's closed. And Sunset thinks we're still sleeping, so there's no chance that she'll be able to feed us now. Look, can't you just hold it off until morning?" As soon as she finished, her own tummy began to rumble. "Oh, great. Me too?" "Me three," Lemon answered Indigo with her the noise of her own stomach. "We're gonna have to eat something, girls. And I think I know just how to do it." "Lemon Zest with a plan? Now there's something you don't see every day." Sugarcoat blinked as she wriggled out of the covers of her crib. "I'm being serious, girls. This one's a sure-fire success." Lemon grabbed her blanket and toddled towards the edge of the crib. She tied the blanket to the top of the frame, using the excess that hung back into her crib to form a rope. "Just because we're babies doesn't mean we're totally trapped in here." She climbed the rope, sat on the top of the frame, slung the rope over the other side, then slid down it like a fireman on a pole. "For those of you that didn't see that, I just climbed out of the crib using nothing but my blankie. You girls wanna follow me?" "You... you got out?" Sugarcoat's eyes widened. She hadn't seen Lemon think like that in a long time. Not since the last Friendship Games, at least. "Yeah. It's not that hard. Now, let me tell you the rest of my plan," she said, crawling over to the door in the darkness. Thankfully, a small sliver of light poking out of the bottom edge was enough for her to follow. "We make a tower of babies just like we did at the daycare to open the door—minus the pooping, that is—, we go down the stairs to the kitchen, we eat like queens, then go back to the room before Sunset even knows what's up. Simple." "Normally, I'd question that, Lemon, but you did get out of the crib, so... I'm in." Sunny Flare mimicked Lemon's advice, creating a rope out of her crib that she climbed up, slung over the edge, then slid down. "I suppose I should go along too, to make sure that you don't get into trouble." Sugarcoat followed the same steps everyone else did, quickly finding herself back on the padded floor of the room again. Sour and Indigo didn't need to respond. They just climbed out of the cribs and formed up with Lemon and the others. Together, the five babies huddled up together, setting their plan into motion. Like before, the babies stacked themselves one on top of the other, leaning against the wall for support. Sugarcoat at the bottom, Indigo on top of her, Sunny after that, Sour next, and then Lemon at the top, as she was masterminding the kitchen heist. She reached over for the handle, her fingers mere inches away from it as she leaned over, disrupting the balance ever so slightly. It wouldn't have been much in any other scenario, but atop a precarious tower of four other babies? That was enough to cause some wobbles. She eventually grabbed onto the handle, but in doing so caused the whole tower to tumble, dropping the Shadowbolts onto their backs and diapered rumps, leaving her gripping on for dear like to the door handle, which drooped under her weight. She yanked the door towards the darkness, prying it open slightly before the other four grabbed on to the open end of the door and pulled it open. Their ticket out of the room presented itself as the small sliver grew wide, filling out most of the shadowed corners of the nursery. "Yes!" Lemon fist-pumped under her breath, before sliding off of the handle and landing on her bottom, causing the handle to flick back up to its' original alignment on the door. She crawled out of the door with the other four Shadowbolts, leaving the nursery behind as the next phase of their plan came into action. They all crawled through the corridors of Sunset's house, briefly passing by her room in the process. A quick peek inside showed that Sunset was deeply engrossed into another one of her games, headphones over her ears silencing the noise around her so that she could solely focus on the score that she was wracking up for herself. They all went on past except for Lemon and Sunny Flare, who were pulled away by the tiny hands of Sugarcoat, Sour Sweet, and Indigo Zap. The next issue then presented itself to the babies in the form of stairs. It might not have been much to them when they were older, but in their minuscule forms, these stairs were gargantuan. They all knew that if they tried to walk down them normally, it was going to end in catastrophe. Indigo went first, turning her back to the stairs and climbing backwards down them, gripping on to the edges of each step as she laid her knees down on the next. When she got halfway, the other babies copied her actions, following her down the mountainous path until they arrived in one more corridor coated in darkness. "Okay. Now, where's the kitchen again?" Sugarcoat asked as she tried to make out the slightest of shapes within the darkness, as shadows jutted out from every direction as the dusk moonlight started to creep in through the windows. "I think it was this way?" Lemon Zest went over to the door behind the stairs, following the smallest little glimmers of light that came from it. At the same time she did this, a creaking noise came from the side, causing her to yelp and jump onto her feet in seconds. This stance lasted less than a second as she swung her arms in circles before falling back onto her diaper again. "What was that?!" The noise repeated itself, causing all of the babies to jump. It wasn't a sound that they were unfamiliar with, but the fact that they were hearing it, in the middle of the night, with no-one there to come and save them. They all huddled up together into one, big, shivering crowd as the noise sounded off again. And again. And again. Sour Sweet couldn't handle it anymore and started to cry softly. She closed her eyes and tightly clutched Mr Cuddlebutt. She soon found her mouth corked by a pacifier that Lemon Zest had been carrying with her as the others patted her back and hugged her tightly. She took a look at her friends, letting their faces coat out the rest of the world as the noise started to diminish. She took out the soother and breathed again, saying "Thanks, girls. I needed that." With the danger averted, the babies all continued on Lemon's route towards the kitchen, where the moonlight was leaking in from every window in sight, illuminating the room in a pale glow. Their eyes went wide at the sight as they went inside, moving towards the tabletops in particular. Fruit from the bowl was on their mind due to how squishy the majority of them were. With the lack of teeth, they could just crush an orange in their mouth with their gums and slurp the remains. At least, that's what they thought. "See anything good yet?" Indigo asked as she crawled around the counters, looking in little drawers to find anything that resembled food. "Nothing over here," said Sour from another cabinet by the back door. "Just some icky stuff on cleaning over here." "Girls! I've found the jackpot!" Lemon squealed as her eyes laid themselves on something very appealing. "What? What is it, Lemon?" Sunny Flare asked as she hurriedly scampered over to her side with a grin on her face. "Cookies!" Lemon squeaked as she pointed to a jar seen hanging on a shelf by the fridge. The cookies themselves weren't visible, as an opaque, striped pattern ran across the object in question. "Cookies, eh? Sounds just about what you'd find, girl." Indigo came over, patting Lemon on the back as she looked up at the jar. "So. Wanna tower up again? Or are there other ways we can get up there?" Lemon didn't even wait for the girls to respond and grabbed onto the drawers. She climbed up to the counters using nothing but the knobs and edges of the drawers, acting as miniature footholds. The other babies could only watch in both awe and nervously as Lemon made her way up. She made a slip and nearly toppled off, but quickly stretched her arms out and grabbed onto the counter's edge. She dangled and was about to lose her grip when she found herself boosted up by the other four Shadowbolts, who had hastily taken up a small two-by-two square formation for her to stand on. "Thanks for the help, girls." Lemon gave them all a thumbs up. "No prob, Lemon. Now, go and get us those cookies!" Indigo craned her head up from the square. Lemon examined the counter for a while until she noticed something by the sink. A tea towel with a white and blue square pattern poked out of the drying rack. She moved over to it, pulled it out of the rack and held it by two ends, making a scarf out of it. Holding the towel, she moved back over to the cookie jar and stood back up, swaying slightly as she stayed as still as possible. Using the scarf she had made, she slung it over and behind the jar, then yanked at it a few times, causing it to fall from the shelf. She jumped and grabbed it, with her posterior once more being cushioned by the padded white undergarment as she fell back to the counter. "Got it!" Lemon whispered as she came to the others, lowered the jar down to them, then climbed down the square they had made. Now Lemon, her friends, and the cookies were all together. "Nice!" Indigo grinned widely. "Good job, Lemon." "Open it! Open it! I wanna see the cookies!" Sour clasped her hands as Lemon put the jar in the middle of the group of five. Lemon reached for the top of the jar and opened it up, revealing the reward they had worked for so hard to get. Sure enough, the insides of the jar contained chocolate chip cookies. All of them round, all of them a feast for the eyes. She reached into the jar and plucked out one, causing the others to follow suit and take their own cookies. "Girls. Thank you. This was a team effort." Lemon Zest smiled as the others held their cookies in hand. "I don't think I could've ever done this alone." "If anything, we should thank you for coming up with the idea, Lemon. I don't think I've had an adventure like that in ages!" Indigo pointed at Lemon. "If you didn't come up with this, I don't know how we would have dealt with the whole hunger situation." "Yeah. This one's all you, Lemon." Sour Sweet gave Lemon Zest a high-five, with the little paw of Mr Cuddlebutt accompanying it. "I have to agree. You really managed to pull through with this, Lemon. I was expecting something to go wrong, but you've proved me wrong on that front." Sugarcoat grinned as she felt the cookie all over. "This is going to taste so much better now that we've earned it..." "Then what are we waiting for? Let's tuck in, girls!" Sunny Flare giggled as she brought the cookie to her mouth. "Here's to being babies, girls." Lemon held her cookie high over the jar. "To being babies!" The others followed by raising their cookies to hers before they all wedged the cookies into their mouths, letting the flavours dance on their tastebuds as they bit down hard with their gums, causing the cookies to break, with the tiny chips resting in their mouths. They all broke the smaller parts down until they were mushy, then let the foodstuffs run down into their bellies. "Mmm... Tasty!" Sunny said as she took another bite of the disk of food. "This is one of the best-tasting cookies I've ever had!" Her comments were replied to with coos and murmurs of agreement as the other Shadowbolts continued to eat. As the moon rose into the air on that night, the underbelly of the Shimmer household was mostly silent, with only the sound of babies munching on cookies coming from the kitchen could be heard. As the moon trickled down into the room, five little souls did nothing but eat; sharing their rewards with their peers and plush toys. A sight that could only be seen once in a generation; a sight of utter tranquility and contentment as the five infants ate until they could eat no more. And when it came time for them to go back to their cribs to sleep the rest of that night, the evidence of their little escapade was gone. The jar of cookies had been planted back on the shelf in its' rightful place, the crumbs vanished after a quick little sweep from the girls, and the room vacated. With their work done, the Shadowbolts climbed back up the stairs, passed by Sunset's room once more, went back into the nursery, climbed back into their cribs, and converted the ropes back into the blankets. Then, they fell asleep, returning once more to the dreams that they had once cocooned themselves in. Another prize for them after going through their cookie-related quest.