Where am I? Who am I? Something feels off.
The world around me feels hazy. The first thing I notice is that I’m surrounded by fuzzy figures, but that could be due to my vision. However, the figures feel familiar. Like somehow I know them. It’s at the tip of my tongue, but something else is colliding with it. It’s like a puzzle piece going into the right place but in the wrong puzzle.
My vision becomes clearer and I see that I’m in a hospital, but not just any hospital, a human one. The figures turn out to be humans too. I look down at myself and see that I’m human too, but my hands are all wrinkly.
Am I… an old man?
My hearing finally registers the sound of a heart rate monitor and it's hooked up to me. Along with IV tubes inserted into my veins. It hits me, I’m on my death bed. But why?
“Grandpa? Are you gonna get better?” A smaller human speaks to me. She looks to be about eight or nine years old.
Grandpa?
An older woman bends down to the child. “Grandpa just needs some rest okay, sweetie?”
“Listen to your mother, kiddo.” A raspy voice comes out of my mouth. The little girl is pulled away by her mother.
What the? I didn’t say that. Or at least not on purpose.
For some reason, I’m on my death bed and surrounded by what I can assume is my family. But I don’t recognize them, at least not completely. There's a sense of familiarity, but only a pinch of it.
Wait, I’ve already had a vision of dying. It was me being in an alleyway and getting stabbed by someone and then choking on something. It was completely different from this. Why do I have two different versions of my death?
I don’t get to think about it any further as the beeping of the monitor goes flat and my vision goes dark. And it’s not by being knocked out.
My eyes shoot open. I’m no longer in that hospital surrounded by humans. Instead, I’m in a completely different sort of room. And that’s not all, the bed I’m in has me in some wooden cage. Above me are… small figures hanging from an arc. Oh no. I’m in a crib.
Who puts a grown stallion in a crib? Either I’m dreaming or somepony has a strange fetish. I’m hoping for the former. I do not need another thing to deal with today if it is still the same day.
Wait. What was I dreaming about again?
I roll over with some difficulty. I get up and then realize the world is a lot bigger. The walls are stretched up high to reach and the ceiling, which is also large, and the windows look ginormous. I look down at myself to see that my entire body has shrunk. I try to get up, but my legs feel really wobbly and weak.
Okay, try not to panic. I can still teleport out of here.
I concentrate, but nothing happens. I’m still in the same spot. I try again but to no avail. My ability to teleport is gone. An uneasy filling overcomes me for a bit. But not to worry I remember that I still have one more means of escape. My wings began flapping, but there’s no lift. I turn back and see that they’re really small. My wingspan is far too short to get me any lift.
I then have a moment of realization. I didn’t shrink at all, I’ve been turned into a small foal. But how?
“Let’s see how you handle being nothing but a foal!”
Starlight did this to me. I thought she was referring to the size of one, not actually become one. Okay, okay. Let’s calm down. So, if memory serves, I was chasing Starlight through a weird portal and we were fighting in the vortex. Then she grabbed hold of me and that’s when she probably turned me into a foal. After which she tossed be further into the vortex. So, I’ve been turned into a small colt and have landed somewhere in the past.
The new question is how far back in the past and where. Hopefully not too far back.
Then I notice that my accursed collar is gone. I felt around my neck and notice that it’s no longer there. Did it fall off? When I was struck by Starlight, my armor was disintegrated, but my collar stayed intact. Now that I recall, it didn’t change size when I was being turned into a foal. So it probably fell off when I was spinning out of control in the vortex before making a painful landing.
So where is it now? Or when is it now? It probably ended up somewhere in the future. Since it most likely exited the vortex first. Should I be worried? Because who knows who could find it. But, for now, I should be glad it's gone. After all the main reason it exists in the first place was to impair my abilities. Still, the helmet form protected me from getting knocked out.
Oh no, I'm exposed to the dangers again. Perhaps I'll run into it. But when?
My train of thought is broken by an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. I recognize it as hunger, but the feeling is a lot more intense. It becomes more of a bother than it should be. Is it because I’m a baby? Before I realize it I’m crying. I can’t stop myself from doing so. Any attempt to hold my mouth shut makes me want to cry even louder.
Who would even come?
My question is answered when a unicorn in a maid uniform comes in. The maid has a dark blue coat and a golden mane and tail. She looks directly at me. There are noticeable dark bags under her eyes despite her being a dark color. She looks tired. But why?
“I was wondering if you would awaken at all.” She says.
She makes her way to me. She stops at the edge of my crib and looks down at me. She gives me a smile. I want to give her some form of acknowledgment, but I’m still crying. It doesn’t help that it is hard to keep my eyes open.
I feel a familiar sensation of being lifted up, but she's not using her hooves. Instead, she's using her horn to levitate me up and out of the crib. Being in the air suddenly feels frightening. There’s nothing to hold on to. I flail my stubby legs to catch onto something, but there’s nothing but air.
I then feel the warm embrace of the unicorn’s body. I feel more relaxed but I still feel hungry. But she doesn’t know that. She cradles me in hopes to calm me down. It just makes me cry harder.
“If you do not require comfort then what else do you want? Oh, wait! I am such a fool.”
I hear the sound of her horn and then soon I feel something make contact with my mouth. I keep my mouth shut, but the maid pushes down on it with a bit of more force. Finally, I give in and I instinctively begin sucking on it. I taste the warm liquid. I force more of it down my throat. I have no control over what I’m doing. It’s like my body has a mind of its own.
Eventually, my stomach feels full and I let go of it. I come back to my senses and I now have a clear look at the maid. Her mane is a bit of a mess as if she was under a lot of stress and her eyes didn’t help either.
“I was so worried about you. You would not wake up, so I thought of the worst until I heard your cries. The princess would have my head had I failed to nurse the child she entrusted me with.” She looks more relaxed now as she fixes her mane neatly. “Still, what sort of mother abandons her foal?”
In my case. One that doesn’t exist in this world.
Wait. Did she say a princess entrusted me with her? Was it Twilight? No, it couldn’t be, she doesn’t have any servants besides me. And this doesn’t look like her castle. The walls are made of stone as castles should be. And I remember that I’m somewhere in the past. So she’s either a foal too, or she’s not even born yet. That would bring me to two possible choices, Celestia or Luna.
Also. Why is she talking like that?
The last thing I saw before blacking out last time was the blurry image of a dark blue pony. So it might have been Luna. What was she doing here? I’m not that far in the past if Twilight is a foal. Luna was still banished to the moon at the time. Unless I’m somewhere in the past where she hasn’t been banished yet.
But that would make it more than a thousand years! How could I’ve been sent that far back? It didn’t feel like I traveled that far down the time vortex.
And… am I wearing a diaper? Oh, sweet Celestia how embarrassing. Does that mean I’m going to have to 'go' in this?
Before I could ask myself any more questions I start to feel drowsy. My eyelids start to become heavy. I fight to stay awake, but sleep wins over.
However, I see that the room starts to fill up with the sun’s morning light.
Its morning? How did I not notice it was dark out? How long was I out for?
I then see the blurry silhouette of a taller pony appear behind the maid. I think I know who it is. I soon fall onto a deep slumber.
“How has thou been?” The princess of the night asks the maid.
“I have seen better days your majesty.” The maid replied to her princess with the utmost respect. The maid was one of the very few ponies who truly appreciated what the princess of the night did. “If I may, what do I owe the pleasure to your presence?”
“I has't come to see the foal.” She said.
“Of course, however, the child has fallen asleep.”
“Pardon me?”
“Since bringing him here, he had not awakened all day but then awoke due to hunger at twilight. After some more care, he fell back asleep.” The maid explained throwing away a white smelly object.
“Curious.”
“Agreed.”
“Bring me the foal at which hour that gent awakens.”
“Of course, Princess”
Princess Luna looks at the now sleeping foal. She is uncertain about what to do with it. When she first saw it in the middle of the royal gardens in terrible condition. She was angered at first and wanted to punish those who committed the terrible crime. She would have them shaved clean and bath in boiling oil. If they survived that, then they would-.
“No, now is not the hour to think about that.” She mentally spoke to herself. “Sister wouldst just play it off as anoth'r immature rant.”
Then an idea came across her. Her sister saw her as immature, irresponsible. Apparently her role as the princess of the night, the one who shaped the night sky with beautiful stars and entered ponies dreams to rid them of nightmares, was not enough. Perhaps raising this foal as her own would prove how mature and responsible she was.
Yes, she could raise him and show him how wonderful her nights could be. He would show the rest of the land of Equestria all of her glory. After all, why couldn’t she? Her sister had adopted many children before. Each one spoke about the greatness of their adoptive mother to all the subjects even in their final moments of life.
With that, she left the small nursery in preparation to make one of her own in her chambers. But first, she would need some preparation.