"First of all, you are to refer to the three of us as 'Big Brothers', and you have to do what we tell you, when we tell you, how we tell you to do it!" Spike said, pacing in front of the fillies, waving around a scroll like a king's cane. "You don't get to eat any sweets until after you finish your dinner. You do not get to stay up after seven. You do not take any books to read unless you ask one of us first. Questions?" he finished, turning to the very confused looking girls.
"I feel like we should be worried," Quinn whispered to Zack. "Little guy has issues."
"Hey, it's his night. Let him enjoy himself a bit. I'll step in if things take a bad turn." Zack reassured.
"Knowing you, it's after fatal injury," Quinn whispered to him, earning himself an angry glare from the other boy.
Twilight raised a small hoof. "What's 'refer' mean?"
Spike lowered the scroll to his side, the commanding fire dampened by the innocence of the question. "It means you call us that."
"Can I go to the bathroom?" Pinkie asked.
"I'll take her," Quinn volunteered, picking the mare up off the table and setting her down on the floor again.
"I have to go too!" Rarity said, reaching up towards Quinn. He set her on the floor and showed the two to the bathroom.
"I wanna go outside!" Rainbow Dash announced, stamping a hoof to call attention to herself. "I wanna see the pegasuses fly around!"
"It's dark out," Spike pointed out. "You won't be able to see any-"
"Yes I will!" Rainbow dash said, hopping off the table, her wings fluttering, whether in effort to fly or soften the fall, only she knew. "Let's go outside!"
"I have a better idea," Zack said, leaning down to her. He gave a wink to Spike to let him know he'd handle it. "Let's build a fort with the couch cushions!"
"But-" Spike protested.
"Yeah! Let's do that!" AppleJack agreed, abandoning her hat and running with Rainbow Dash to the couch, closely followed by Zack.
Spike shook his head and let out an exasperated breath of air. Already Zack was ruining his master plan to make the girls taste their own medicine. It didn't seem like the girls were really understanding what he said to them, or weren't really listening. At least Quinn wasn't-
"Spike!" He heard him call from the bathroom. "We have an issue!"
Spike was beginning to have second thoughts about his plan.
---
"Alright girls, time for bed!" Spike announced, having finished cleaning the 'accident' and noting the time.
"Aww!" came the cries in the pillow fort. Spike could've sworn he'd heard Zack's, but the pillow's muffling made it difficult to tell.
"Can we stay up later?" AppleJack popped out from between to cushions.
"No, for two reasons," Spike said, dismantling the fort. "One, it's already after seven as it is, and two, you didn't say 'please.'"
He pulled up a pillow and uncovered FlutterShy, who looked up at him with shining, big eyes. "Please?"
Spike almost found himself saying 'yes', but managed to catch himself. "No. Come on now."
There was a collective groan of unhappiness, but gradually, one by one, the fillies revealed themselves and started to clamber up the stairs as directed by Quinn. Spike set about replacing the couch parts and moving them back into place, not an easy task at his size. Upstairs, Zack put each of the girls into Twilight's bed, three at either end.
"Right. Nobody need's water, or needs the toilet?" Zack checked. He received a unanimous shake of the head. "Alright. Do I need to leave the lights on?" All the ponies excluding Rainbow and AppleJack nodded, so he did. "Goodnight girls."
"Wait!" Twilight called to him before he closed the door. "You forgot the story!"
"Oh," Zack said, thinking for a moment. "I'll get Quinn to read for you."
"He's boring!" Pinkie protested.
"And scary," FlutterShy added quietly, pulling the blanket over her head.
Zack let out a short laugh, then said "He's a better storyteller than I am. I'll send him up."
A moment later, Quinn opened the door, and sat down on a stool by the bed. "Okay, do you have any story in mind?"
There was a chorus of story names he'd never even heard of, The Mare on the Moon and The Legend of the Mirror Hole among them. He was confused on what to do until Twilight pointed out a book on the shelve next to him.
"That one!" She said, pointing at the book with gemstones set in the binding. "Read that one."
Pulling it off the shelf, he saw it was the Equestrian version of Goodnight Moon. The rabbit was replaced with a little white filly, and the moon's shadow was in the shape of a unicorn's head. Setting it on his lap so the girls could see the pictures, he began to read in a soft voice rivaling that of FlutterShy, "Goodnight moon, goodnight stars..."
---
"Alright," Quinn said as he descended the stairs. "The girls are asleep. Spike, go administer the antidote. We don't want to spend tomorrow looking after them."
"Speak for yourself," muttered Zack.
"But... I still didn't get my payback! They had way more fun than I ever did as a kid." the dragon protested.
"Spike. You turned them. Into toddlers." Quinn said slowly. "That's ten times the vengeance I was ever able to exact back home."
"Besides, you really don't want anyone else to find out. The longer you keep this up, the more chance of word getting out." Zack added.
"Are you threatening me?"
"I think the term is blackmail," Quinn said, giving a nod of approval to the other human. "Now go."
"Should've given you two the stuff," grumbled Spike, snatching the vial of antidote from Zack's outstretched hand. "You're just as bad as they are."
Spike walked up to the bed were the fillies slept. He smeared some of the antidote on his palm, and gently rubbed a bit onto the girls' foreheads. There was a brief moment of panic when Twilight turned over in her sleep, but she did not wake fully. Spike backed over to his bed, picked it up, and brought it downstairs with him. Twilight once told him he snored at night, and he didn't want to wake up anypony. He set it down at the bottom of stairs, and put the vial on the table. Zack and Quinn had left the room, so he turned out the lights, and flopped down on the bed, exhausted from his efforts throughout the day.
---
Spike was roused from his slumber by a light tap of a hoof. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he faced the tear-streaked face of the young Twilight.
"What's the matter?" asked the dragon.
"I had a bad dream," said the frightened filly. "Can I sleep with you?"
There were a number of reasons to say no. Spite, having to explain to the re-aged Twilight, things along those lines. But it was hard to say that flat out to those huge, scared eyes. "Well-"
"You can scare away the monsters," Twilight added in a definite tone. "Please?"
"Oh... okay then," said Spike, moving over and lifting up the blanket. When he was little, he'd have nightmares. Twilight would let him sleep with her, so he'd feel safe. This was the same situation. Mostly. She scooted into the bed, curling up against him. Spike was careful to make sure he didn't poke her with his spines. Her small form seemed off, somehow wrong. Didn't she used to be a bigger? Spike dismissed the thought as a result of fatigue and the darkness. Soon he drifted back off to sleep, Twilight's adorable little sighs of breath in rhythm with his own.