Twilight and Sunset were seen in bed together. Ever since Pinkie Pie and Applejack were lost to the mysterious man and the Staff of Time, they were beginning to feel anxious about who would be next. Because their opponent wielded the staff and he was a human, that gave him more of an advantage over the two of them, but they were too worried to even think about it.
As the two girls huddled up together, their bodies were shaking wildly. The stress and insecurity that they felt was understandable, as the man could stop, travel through, and even use time to youthen his victims. However, they were unaware of the third property. And the only ones who knew it were immediately transformed into infants upon being told it.
But what truly frightened Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer was that their friends would be taken away from them first. They could have very well said their goodbyes to one of their friends for the last time, and that next morning, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, or Fluttershy would have been taken and youthened down to a newborn due to the staff's power. After their friends were all taken, the man would be coming after the both of them last. This struck more into Twilight's mind, as if she were turned into a baby, there would be no-one to stop the man's crusade. With that in mind, Twilight believed that she was facing the toughest challenge she had ever fought.
"Twilight, I can't sleep..." Sunset said as she tightly held onto Twilight's body and shuddered.
"I know, Sunset. The feeling's mutual..." Twilight responded. "Nothing in this world can stand up to that guy. He's got all of time at his beck and call, so it's only natural that we're both frightened out of our wits..."
"And now that he's taken two of our friends, we can't stop him!" Sunset added to the severity of the situation by reminding Twilight of an important fact. "We need all of your friends to activate the Magic of Friendship. Now that Applejack and Pinkie Pie are babies, we can't call upon the magic to take him out!"
"I'm scared, Sunset..." Twilight pulled Sunset into a tight hug and began to shed tears. "I'm suffering Hypnophobia just thinking about who could be next to go. Rarity... Fluttershy... or even Rainbow Dash could be gone forever in the morning."
"Hypnophobia?" Sunset asked.
"The fear of going to sleep," Twilight explained. "There are many symptoms that come with this fear, such as rapid breathing, trembling, drowsiness, confusion, and a bunch of others."
"So wait, hold on a sec... The fear of sleep, has symptoms that make you want to go to sleep?" Sunset said, then showed even more fright. "That's even more terrifying!"
"Well, we all have to shut our eyes eventually," Twilight told her reluctantly. "Without sleep, we can't concentrate on our goals. And if we can't focus on defeating that man, he could very well take us all when we least expect it, and before we make a plan to intercept his next friend robbery..." before Twilight could even say anything else, she was already falling asleep.
Twilight's body became motionless as the feeling of sleep washed over her. Her breathing became shallow, and her muscles loosened up.
Twilight eventually awoke in a black plane of nothingness, with no ground, sky, or any other forms of life as far as her eyes could see. Slowly but surely, Twilight rose to her feet and immediately discovered that she was hovering in the middle of the void of darkness.
"W-Where am I?" Twilight said to herself, then noticed that she was all alone. "Oh no! Sunset?! Girls?! Anyone there?!" her isolation was beginning to show her fear, a fear that only grew more and more as she desperately looked for her friends.
Twilight flew forward into another portion of the world of darkness, and saw a dim light off in the distance. Think that that light was one of her friends, she compelled herself to travel towards it. The light got brighter and brighter the more she got closer to it, and she eventually covered her eyes to avoid being blinded by its' radiance.
Twilight eventually saw the light dim down so that she could see. However, what she saw was was truly set the stage for her worries. She was looking at a number of doors in a complex maze of corridors. Each and every door had a small window that led into a room, and had the names of the students from CHS engraved on the plaque underneath the window. Whilst some were grouped together, there were some who were separate from the rest.
"What is this place?" Twilight asked herself as her feet touched the ground. She began to walk down the corridor until she saw a door with an eye-catching name on the plaque. "Sunset Shimmer?" Twilight was about to look into the room, when something else grabbed her attention. "Donated to the orphanage by a mysterious man, four months old?"
Twilight looked through the window inquisitively. True to the plaque, Sunset Shimmer was inside the room. However, her new room was a nursery with bright and colourful wallpaper that had her Cutie Mark decorated all over it. There were a variety of toys that suited the age Sunset was in in her current state, but she was fast asleep in the crib that was located at the end of the wall.
"No way..." Twilight said as she looked more and more at the baby Sunset Shimmer. "I can't let this happen!"
She eventually pulled herself away from the window and walked down another corridor with doors at each side. Just like before, each and every door had the names of each different student or group of students from Canterlot High School engraved on golden plaques, as well as what age they were and how they arrived at the orphanage. Twilight was tempted to look at each different room, but she eventually stopped herself and continued on.
In the end, she finally found a room that was very fear-invoking to her. The room's plaque clearly said, "The Rainbooms, abandoned by their parents at the age of one. Rescued by an anonymous citizen. Children inside: Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle." seeing as this one had the names of all of her friends, as well as her own name on the plaque, she looked through the window and saw something dreadful.
The room was much bigger than the other rooms that she had come across, and there was more stuff to play with inside. There was one large crib, able to hold Twilight and all of her friends at the same time. The walls were rainbow-coloured and had all kinds of childish decorations stretching from wall to wall; rainbow paper chains and hanging stars were merely a few of the things that the walls had. Despite how infantile the room looked, Twilight saw there were two figures speaking to each other inside. One of them was the man who had taken the Staff of Time, and the other one was herself.
"So, Twilight Sparkle, now do you see how much better off your friends are?" the man asked as he put each one of Twilight's friends into the crib and tucked them in. "In this state, they no longer have to worry about any of the trivial things in life, such as fending for themselves, or struggling to answer questions with hard-to-get answers. Thanks to the Staff of Time, the only directive your friends have now is to play, play and let me and the generous folk of this orphanage look after them..."
"My friends..." the Twilight in the room lightly reached out for each of them, then pulled her hand back in a defeated motion.
"Why did you suddenly pull your hand back? I can return them to you, if you wish..." the man said as he moved away from the crib and picked up the Staff of Time once more. "Simply agree to lose all of your age, and you and your friends shall be reunited forever. You won't have to worry about any hard or laborious things ever again..."
"I've lost everything that I ever had..." the Twilight in the room said, hanging her head. "So at this point, I have nothing to lose by accepting this offer... I now know your pain, and I wish to be freed of it; to be freed of my age, and to reunite with each of my friends..."
"What am I saying..." the Twilight outside looked inside the room in a state of disbelief. "I would never give into that madman just because I'm friendless... Or, would I?" she was unsure whether or not that this particular event was a nightmare, or a vision of future events.
"Thank you so much, Your Highness," the man said as he begun to spin the staff once more, ready to regress Twilight just like the rest of her friends. "By accepting this offer, you now understand the true meaning of friendship. And because of it, your new infant body will be able to make so many more friends that it will make your previous years seem like a bad memory..."
The Twilight outside of the room was looking with growing shock. The version of her inside of the room was giving up and surrendering to the man's staff. She watched as the light hit her, then constantly changed her outfits to suit her rapidly decreasing age. And with a final blast of light, she watched as the man picked up the infant version of herself and put her into the crib alongside her friends.
"And now, you and your friends truly understand the meaning of friendship," the man inside spoke to the infant Twilight, who was letting her eyelids droop very slightly. "Now that you are free, and safe from the dangers of the grown-up world, the number of friends you have and will make will skyrocket."
"No..." the Twilight outside was mortified with the sight she was looking at. She and all of her friends had been turned into infants, and this was the fate that awaited her if she was unable to stop the man and his Staff of Time. "NOOOOOOOO!" she screamed, causing the world around her to shatter like glass.
Twilight immediately jolted out of bed and landed on the floor face-first. When she did, she realised that it had all just been a nightmare, and that she was still grown-up and sleeping with Sunset Shimmer. After shaking her head, she found that it was almost eight in the morning.
"Twilight? Did you have another nightmare?" Sunset asked as she climbed out of bed to help Twilight get back onto her feet.
"Y-Yeah, I did..." Twilight stammered as she took Sunset's hand and slowly stood up. "I saw this orphanage with lots of doors. Each door had a plaque on it, as well as the names of all of the students that went missing. Not just that, I saw a room where you were an infant, sleeping in a crib like the others..." she suddenly stopped and began to worry about how Sunset would react to the last part of her nightmare. "And to end the nightmare, I was in a room where I was talking to the man who wielded the Staff of Time. He'd taken all of my other friends and broke my will. I accepted his philosophies, and he youthened me down to join them..."
Sunset couldn't think of anything to say in response to the nightmare. She was unaware that Twilight had suffered so much trauma during the night. However, that didn't stop her from putting her hand on Twilight's back and patting it gently.
"You were very brave to tell me straight away, Twilight," Sunset said with a compassionate smile on her face. She looked at Twilight in the eyes and spoke in a very proud tone of voice, "The sooner you tell your friends about your fears, the better they can help you overcome them. Otherwise, you could leave your fears to fester, and it could ultimately bring heartbreak and disaster to you, and them..."
Twilight took Sunset's words to heart. "You're right, Sunset. I have been letting fear cloud my mind since that guy showed up," her expression then turned into one of courage and determination. "Together, we can stop my nightmares from becoming a reality. We can— no, we will stop that man, and save my friends from his evil desires!"
Twilight's motivational speech then reminded Sunset of something. "Hold on, Twilight. We need to do a quick check on who's still here..." she pulled out her phone and brought up the phone numbers for Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. "I'll call Fluttershy first. Let's just hope she's still answering..."
The phone rang for at least twenty seconds. Each time the noise of the phone hit Sunset's ears, her face became more and more concerned. Fluttershy was one of the most vulnerable of the group, so it would have been no surprise that it would have taken this long to call her.
Eventually, the phone stopped, and Fluttershy's voice said, "Oh. Good morning, Sunset." making Sunset sigh in relief.
"Morning, Fluttershy," she said through the phone. "Did you have a good sleep last night?"
"Well, not really, to be honest. I was beginning to worry about who would take over my work at the shelter if I was abducted by that meanie," Fluttershy began to talk. "Then I felt terrified that he would show up at any given moment and snatch me away without even talking... I was awake for half of the night, and the other half, I was tossing and turning because of the nightmares that it gave me..."
"Twilight had the same problem, Fluttershy. She had nightmares that she would be unable to defeat the man and that we'd all be babies at his mercy," Sunset said in a calm and understanding tone. "But she was also brave enough to tell me these nightmares straight away, so that it was easier to understand rather than to leave it before it was too late."
"You're welcome, Sunset." Fluttershy said.
"Alright, I'll check in on Rarity and Rainbow Dash, then we'll get together to discuss a plan," Sunset told Fluttershy through the phone. "Alright, I'll see you later."
"Bye, Sunset. If the other girls are still alright, tell them that I said hi." Fluttershy hung up, causing the noise of the dial tone to replace her voice.
"Alright, so that's one girl safe," Sunset said as she then chose Rainbow Dash's phone number. "If Rainbow Dash is still grown-up, then that means by the process of elimination, Rarity will have been the next victim of the man and his staff..."
The phone rang again, but after ten seconds, Rainbow Dash answered it.
"Sup, Sunset?" Rainbow Dash said in her usual tone.
"Good morning, Rainbow Dash," Sunset said on the other side. "Just wanted to check in on you. You know, just so that guy with the staff didn't steal you away and turn you into a child." she said awkwardly.
"Nah, I'm fine, Sunset," Rainbow Dash began to speak. "If I was his next victim, the answer your phone would get would either be baby gibberish, or that evil voicemail that he leaves behind. One or the other."
"I've already called Fluttershy, and she's fine as well," Sunset said, then suddenly felt downhearted. "But that means that Rarity was stolen away from us..."
"Oh no... That poor, poor girl..." Rainbow's voice began to feel less enthusiastic and more concerned. "She's probably in that orphanage as we speak, being tended to by strangers she considers to be her caretakers. But on the bright side, at least now she won't complain about what she wears, no matter how garish her older self would consider it..."
"I'll try calling her just in case," Sunset told her. "But for now, I'll see you and Fluttershy later so that we can talk about our next move."
"Alright. I'll see ya there..." Rainbow Dash's voice trailed off as she hung up. The way it was low in pitch was a sign that she had lost her energy.
"Twilight, I hate to tell you this, but—" Sunset was stopped by one of Twilight's own hands.
"I know, Sunset. But we'll get her back somehow," Twilight said with a light smile. "You've taught me to never shy away, even when the odds are completely against you and you're playing with someone who has a stacked deck. Rarity might be gone, but we'll find her and change her back. I promise you..."
"Yeah, but there's something that's been bugging me lately..." Sunset hung her head.
"What is it?" Twilight asked, seeing Sunset's distress almost immediately.
"The guy wanted to share his pain with you, but he never said what his true motives were," Sunset explained. "What does he possibly have to gain from turning his victims into babies? There's just no connection to what his desires are."
"He said that he was trying to save friendships from being destroyed by age," Twilight then got a train of thought going and put her fingers to her chin. "But maybe, what if his desires are false? What if he's after something much darker than to youthen everyone he comes across? Much like how Starlight herself had some dark desires of her own, but didn't share them with us. She spoke of gathering Cutie Marks, but for what purpose? It's the exact same scenario with this man. He's turning everyone into infants, but he's also shrouding his true goals in mystery..."
"I get the feeling that we'll get our answer the next time we meet him. Likely, when he takes away the rest of our friends and makes us the only ones left..." Sunset said as she pulled her head back up and thought ahead. "But we'll find out in due time, won't we?"
"Maybe—" before Twilight could continue, Sunset's phone began to ring.
"Huh?" Sunset turned around and saw that someone was calling her. She pushed the green button that had a phone symbol on it and put it to her ear. "Hello?"
"Good morning, Sunset," Rarity's voice came from the other side of the phone. "I wish I could have called you sooner, but due to all those atrocious nightmares I had of me dressed in embarrassing baby clothes, it's taking an extra long time for me to curl my hair today..."
However, Sunset dropped her phone onto the bed in astonishment. Rarity was speaking to her, in her teenage voice no less. As she picked the phone back up, a number of thoughts ran through her mind. How is she still grown up? Why didn't the man's staff youthen her? He wanted to share his pain with Twilight, but here I am, talking to Rarity, as if she wasn't even in any danger to begin with...
"Rarity? You didn't see the man and the Staff of Time last night, did you?" Sunset asked for clarification. "Because I checked in with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash just moments ago, and they were perfectly fine as well..."
"Are they?" Rarity's voice came through in an interested tone. "But why? Why didn't that stranger try to turn them into infants like he always does? Were Pinkie Pie and Applejack just one-offs?"
"I don't know..." Sunset was having trouble bringing up any other emotions other than shock and curiosity. "But if he didn't strike then, then the Staff of Time must have limits. Limits which we have to find and invoke somehow if we stand a chance of beating him..."
To Be Continued...