"What's the damage, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked as Fluttershy put Applejack and Pinkie Pie onto the floor. Fluttershy had taken it upon herself to check on the state of her friends, to see whether or not this new-found childhood was eternal like the man had said. "Will they be babies forever?" she felt rather worried when she asked the question.
"Well, not really. While Applejack and Pinkie Pie might be babies now, I think that they're still ageing like regular humans," Fluttershy explained as accurately as possible. "They're not going to be like this forever, but it will take around fifteen years for them to grow up and become the Applejack and Pinkie Pie we know and love."
"Fifteen years?! We can't wait that long!" Rainbow Dash threw her hands out in frustration. "At the rate that that creep's going with the staff, we could be babies in fifteen hours!"
"Rainbow Dash, remember where we are," Sunset said, getting Rainbow Dash to tone down her voice. "You might feel frustrated about all of this, but your actions here could scare the little ones."
"She's right, you know," a member of staff walked up to pick up Applejack and Pinkie Pie. She had cream skin and chocolate-brown hair, and she looked like she had absolutely no trouble working with children of the age of four and under. "Babies and toddlers are among the most fragile of humans. Frightening them makes you a horrible person."
Rainbow Dash reluctantly sighed and said, "I'm sorry, ma'am. It's just that me and my friends are going through some hard times now. Our other friends were taken away, and it's affected us more than we'd thought..."
"Your friends?" the woman closed her eyes to think for a while, then opened them again when she had figured it out. "Oh! You mean the disappearing Canterlot High students? Yeah, that story's been going on for a while now. I'm worried that it'll spiral into a full out panic if even more kids go missing..."
"Don't worry. We're close to finishing our investigation on the missing students," Twilight said to the kindly staff member. "We're just waiting for some crucial evidence which should ultimately lead us to why it's happening, and who should be held responsible for it."
"I'd love to hear about your studies, girls. But right now, I've got work to do," the woman said as she began to walk over towards another area of the room so that she could tend to the needs of Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and some of the other lost students. "I'll be back after I'm done with my work."
"So, what now?" Rarity asked the group once they had been left to themselves. "I feel so displaced in here..."
"I... guess we can check out the other students that the man took," Twilight said as she quickly thought of something to pass the time. "Not only will we get to see them again, but it'll be good to get confirmation on whether or not the others still age regularly."
"I suppose that you're right about that," Rarity agreed. "It's better to check all of the kids. No sense in looking at one and assuming that it applies to them all, right?"
"Ugh... this is gonna be so degrading..." Rainbow Dash facepalmed, but reluctantly accepted the plan.
"It'll be fine. All they need is someone to keep them entertained and healthy," Sunset Shimmer said as she walked over towards The Snapshots – or rather, what they had become – and knelt down in front of them. "How hard could it possibly be?"
Once Twilight saw that Sunset was getting started with three of the smaller children, she made her way over to the woman from earlier. "Hi there," she said once the woman had finished dressing Applejack and Pinkie Pie into princess outfits. "Do you want me to help you?"
"Yes. I could always use more hands on deck, if you know what I mean..." the woman said, smiling when she heard the infants giggling at what they presumed was a joke from her. "My name's Motherly Love. What about you?"
"I'm Twilight Sparkle. I was sent here from Canterlot High School to do some work for a project to do with the care for children of all ages," she lied. It was hard to make up a fake story, but it was one that she had to keep intact to preserve her hidden motives. "The school sent me here to do some after-school work for extra credit. I've already explained most of the details to Guiding Light downstairs, but I'm mainly here to spend some time with the children. Learn what makes them tick, in a way."
Whilst Twilight was talking with Motherly Love and helping her out with the care for the infants and toddlers, Fluttershy saw a group of children playing Pattycake with one another. With a grin quickly turning into a smile, Fluttershy walked over to the group of playful children, grabbed their attention, and sat down with them.
That left Rarity and Rainbow Dash, who were both looking rather uncomfortable with the fact that they were now dealing with babies and toddlers until the man arrived to make another donation.
"Look on the bright side, Rares. We're in this together, aren't we?" Rainbow Dash said to try and lift the mood of both of them. "If we were doing this alone, we'd probably have freaked out by the first minute."
Rarity sighed, "I suppose you're right on that fact, Rainbow Dash..." with nothing else to do, Rarity walked over to a bunch of small children who were hiding in an inflatable forest of pillars. "I'll handle the group over here, whilst you can try helping out one of the other members of staff."
Rainbow Dash hesitantly walked over to a group of infants. This sort of thing was miles away from her comfort zone, as she was more into rock and roll, daredevil stunts, and sports. Even with Twilight and the others to back her up and make her feel better, she began to feel concerned that she wouldn't be able to stay loyal to the group in the current situation. Despite this, she did her best to grin and bear it.
And soon, each of the girls was wrapped up in caring for tiny children who were once their classmates and friends. It felt quite bizarre to them, but they quickly learned to adapt to it. And whilst they did their best to entertain the victims that the man had created with the Staff of Time, they knew that they had to find the man and stop his plan as soon as possible.
Eventually, the day had drawn towards the night hours. The sun had just set over the city of Canterlot, and it was almost time for the mysterious man to take another group of students, youthen them, and add them to the orphanage's already large number of "rescued orphans and neglected children."
Little did he know that Twilight, Sunset, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were inside; waiting for him to show up so that they could steal the Staff of Time without him noticing.
"How long do you plan on staying here, girls?" Motherly Love asked as she approached Sunset and Twilight, who were busy playing with Applejack and Pinkie Pie. "I know that it's for extra credit, but I never knew that it was this much extra credit..." she stretched her arms out to the side to emphasize how much she thought the girls were working for.
"It's a long and hard process. You'd need to be in our shoes to really understand," Sunset said as she lightly booped Pinkie Pie on the nose with one of her fingers. She heard the baby laugh afterwards, prompting her to pick Pinkie up and carry her in her arms. "Let's just say that this is crucial to a part of our lives."
"We should be done after one more game," Twilight said, picking Applejack up and tickling her chest. Hearing the noise of her former friend laugh uncontrollably gave her some sense of comfort. "Isn't that right, Jackie? One more game. Yes it is..."
"You're really getting into this, aren't you?" Rainbow Dash chuckled. "But even I gotta say, it was nice spending time with these kids. Both back in there—" she pointed towards the door that led back to the room for the older kids "—and in here."
"Well, what should we play, girls?" Motherly Love asked. "It's your call."
"I was thinking that a good game of Hide-and-Seek would be the best thing to do before we send them off to bed," Fluttershy said as she carried Photo Finish and Violet Blurr over to the rest of the group. "We'll even help with putting away all of the toys afterwards."
"Well, thank you for saying that, girls. I tell you what, that's usually the easiest part of the job, but even then it's a real nightmare trying to reach down and pick everything up. Does a real number on your back, that's for sure..." Motherly said, with the last part being spoke as a joke.
"Alright, I've got Pixel Pizazz here, and she's quite happy to join in the game," Rarity said as she made the group complete. "So, should we all count, or will some of us be trying to hide in this room as well?"
"I think it's better if we just do it all together," Fluttershy said as she and the other girls put the infants down and put her hands over her face. "On the count of ten, we'll look for the girls."
"Alright then, kids. You can all run off and hide now," Sunset said to the five little kids as she too covered her eyes with her face. "One..."
Sunset's counting prompted Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and The Snapshots to crawl and waddle away from them. Whilst they were only months to a year old, they were still quite fast on all fours. They quickly moved into hiding spots and curled up into balls. Letting out quiet giggles, they put their thumbs in their mouths and waited for the girls to find them.
"Well, thank you all for such a wonderful time today, girls," Motherly said as she watched the last member of staff carry Applejack and Pinkie Pie out of the room. It was now 8:45 PM, meaning that it was time for all of the children to go to sleep for the night. "You've really helped brighten this place up, and help the workers out quite a bit. I'm sure that CHS will give you all the extra credit you could possibly want from such long hours like these."
"Well, it was nothing, really," Rainbow Dash smiled as she put her hands around the backs of the girls. "When you believe in friendship, anything is easy; even childcare."
"Well, I'm glad to know you think that, girls. There's only one task left that I can really give you today, putting all of the toys away for the night," Motherly Love opened the door, revealing that the room for the older kids was also unpopulated. "You just have to worry about the toys in this area. The room for the older kids is perfectly fine as it is."
"Alright then," Sunset smiled as she watched Motherly Love walk towards the stairs. "We'll see you real soon, Motherly!"
Once the doors had shut, Twilight and Fluttershy were already on the move towards the first area of the gargantuan nursery. One by one, they picked up the toys that the children had all been playing with during the daylight hours and put them in their arms. Once they had enough that they could carry, Twilight and Fluttershy walked over to a large chest and deposited the toys into it.
Rarity, Sunset Shimmer, and Rainbow Dash quickly followed suit, collecting large groups of scattered toys and cradling them in their arms. They followed the same formula that Twilight and Fluttershy had done, and soon, they were all working with great efficiency.
Eventually, all of the toys had been put away, and Sunset pulled out the keyring once again. Flipping through almost the entire key collection, she eventually found the right key, closed up the toy chest, and locked it tight. Once she tested to see whether or not the lock was real – which it was – Sunset walked towards the door with the rest of the girls. But before she left, she opened the door and flicked the light switch off for the night, instantly shrouding the nursery in total darkness.
"So, when do you think that jerk's gonna strike?" Rainbow Dash's voice turned serious once they were back in the room for the older kids. "This had better work, otherwise the whole time we spent with those babies, toddlers, and children was all for nothing..."
"It'll work, Rainbow Dash. I'm sure of it..." Sunset said as she locked the room up once again. "I'm pretty sure that we need to bring these keys back to the front desk now. Since we won't be here tomorrow, it's better to hand them back to Guiding Light so that she and her team can use them again tomorrow."
The girls turned the lights off in the room for the older kids, walked out, then locked the door tightly. From there, they walked back down the stairs towards the receptionist desk.
"Hello again, girls," Guiding Light said as Sunset put the keyring back on the table. "I trust that you all had a good day here today?"
"Oh, it was a great day, Guiding. We were able to make friends with lots of the children here, as well as learn some interesting things about where they want to live and what they want to do," Sunset said once Guiding Light took the keyring back and took the keys off. "We might even come back and adopt some of them someday..."
"Well, that's good to hear. They really need caring people like you to adopt them," Guiding said. "The right parents will lead them on a life of prosperity, whilst the wrong parents will either land them back here, or put them in an even worse state than they already are..."
"We'll be sure to remember that," Twilight said as she and the girls opened the orphanage door and walked out into the darkness. "Have a good night, Guiding!"
When the doors shut, the girls all walked down a street. The street lamps illuminated a path for them, so that they weren't stumbling around in the darkness. Whilst they began to return home for the night, they began to talk about the things that they had seen and done in the orphanage.
But, whilst they talked, they were unaware that the mysterious man was watching them from the rooftops with the Staff of Time in his hands. He stroked the jewel carefully and tightened his grip. Then, he began to tail them until they were a good distance away from the orphanage.
Once the group had made it to the nearby park, the man decided that it was time for him to make his move. He leapt down onto the path, snuck across the dark road, hid behind a tree, and listened in on The Rainbooms' conversation.
"Alright, so when we see the guy walking down the street to make a donation, we carefully sneak up behind him and take the Staff of Time away whilst he's talking to Guiding," Twilight said, unaware that the man was eavesdropping without her knowing about it. "He'll be unaware that we're going to use the Staff of Time to fix everyone by travelling through time and intercepting the times when he'll try and take our friends away."
"Oh, Twilight Sparkle... How do you expect to be a princess if you're unaware that the enemy could be right under your nose?" the man whispered to himself, then returned to eavesdropping.
"I've got a better idea, Twilight. Why don't we just take the staff back to Equestria with us, then stop him from stealing it in the first place?" Sunset said, raising a finger. She heard all of the girls gasp when she realized what her plan entailed. "If we can stop him from taking the thing from the museum, then it'll instantly fix the timeline and restore everybody – and everypony – back to their original ages!"
Twilight gasped. "Sunset... you're right!" she said, pulling her into a tight hug. "We can fix this even easier now, girls! We just have to take the staff and go back to the museum with it! It's the perfect plan to restore order!"
Hearing enough, the man stopped time with a quick flick of the Staff of Time, pausing the girls right at the moment where they jumped up in joy. From there, he walked out from behind the tree, smiled, then started up time again.
"Hello ladies," he announced himself, making him known to The Rainbooms. His hood was taken off, revealing his true face once more. "Did I ever tell you about the definition of rebirth?"
"You!" Twilight's expression suddenly turned from euphoric to rather serious. "Your days are numbered, uhh... what's your name?"
"Forgive me for not introducing myself, ladies. I suppose I should, seeing as you've seen and said enough," he held out the Staff of Time and brandished it in front of the girls. "My name is Black Cosmos, but soon, I shall become King Black Cosmos."
"You've taken Applejack and Pinkie Pie away from us, you ruffian!" Rarity took up a fighting stance. "Whilst I do prefer to stick to the fashion business, I'll still carve you like a block of ice after being hit by a chisel!"
"Rarity. You still don't know the definition of rebirth," Black Cosmos said as he began to pace around the girls. "Rebirth is a word that I like to think means a second chance at life. Whereas life can be cruel and unrewarding for the most part, rebirth is a word that will ultimately set you free, and put you in a more favourable position in due time..."
"Favourable?! You're turning innocents into babies, and you haven't even explained what you possibly have to gain from it!" Twilight shouted in a fit of rage. "Tell me one good reason why we should even let you walk away from here alive, you sick monster!"
"Alright. The truth then..." Black Cosmos said as he leaned against a tree and pulled a single leaf off of it. "Celestia and Luna are frauds in your Equestria. I noticed first hand that they are unfit to rule the world. They believe in friendships that ultimately fade away with age, and will lead ponies on paths of self-destruction," as he spoke, he used the Staff of Time to age the leaf, making it turn brown and crumble into dust in his hand. "However, my recent studies have enabled me to come to the conclusion that there is only one way to world peace: Age Regression."
"But Age Regression is only for the highest level of unicorn, and even a few Alicorns have trouble trying to pull spells like that off," Twilight said. "How could you possibly have the power to bring Age-Regression to Equestria?"
"Simple. Once I acquire the throne and take Equestria for myself, I shall use the Staff of Time to age myself upwards, turning me into a powerful ruler with a wide array of magical arts at my beck and call," Black said as he walked away from the tree and held the staff up so that everyone could see it. "With this simple stick as Rainbow Dash would put it, age becomes one big abacus. We can use this metaphorical abacus to take you back to an easier time of innocence and playing, or we can use it to rapidly age ourselves into the most intelligent elders the worlds have ever seen!
"And that's only the start of it all," he continued. "When I get the throne, I shall order the world to research easier Age Regression magic, and create various artefacts and potions to manipulate the age of anyone and everyone. Then, I will have won," spinning the Staff of Time, Black then said, "And I'll do it without believing in your version of friendship. Because I see the truth now. Your friendships are a lie, and you five will eventually leave each other forever..."
"That's it!" Rainbow Dash ran towards Black as he prepared to fire another magical blast to alter the age of the group. "I'm gonna knock that stupid rod out of your—" but before she could touch the staff, she was impaled by the white shot of energy fired from it. "—haAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHH!"
"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy ran up to her, but she didn't see the bolt of magic go straight through Rainbow Dash and strike her in the chest as well. She could instantly feel the staff's power damaging her body, and she let out a loud scream herself.
"How dare you! Piercing our friends like they were mere blocks of butter!" Rarity ran up to Black Cosmos to try and kick the staff away from him. "Prepare to dance, you—" she was suddenly struck by a second bolt of white magic, making her holler out just like the other two. "—fiIIIEEEEEEEENNNNNDDDD!"
"No!" Sunset reached out to the girls, but knew that the situation was hopeless. She didn't dare advance in on the man, lest she too was struck by the Staff of Time's power and regressed down to a baby.
"Girls!" Twilight called out as she watched each of the girls, get onto their hands and knees in pain. She was shocked, full of fury, and also had tears about to fall out of her eyes.
"Now you see, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash!" Black Cosmos said as he watched the three girls shrink down and have their outfits rapidly change, as per their decreasing age. "This is the definition of rebirth! You three shall become newborn babies, freed from the curse, and given new life!"
A white flash engulfed the area, and once it had died down, there was the sound of light crying coming from the center of it. When everyone could see again, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash had become babies. Each of them was wearing a plain t-shirt on their chests, and poofy white diapers on their butts. Each of them cried softly, they were all cold and with no-one to love them. But their tears were suddenly silenced when the man picked them up and sat them down on the grass.
Twilight cried when she looked at her friends. Now that she had lost the rest of The Rainbooms, Sunset Shimmer was her one and only friend left in the Human World. Fighting back the tears at long last, she said, "Alright! So it's my turn is it?! Then youthen me! Turn me into a baby if it'll stop you from messing up Canterlot High even more!"
"As much as I'd love to, Twilight Sparkle, the Staff of Time does have its' limits," Black Cosmos said as he opened up a time portal and put the staff away. "I can only meddle with the ages of up to three people at a time, and I can't interfere with any major events in the past. Furthermore, the staff can only be used so many times at once before it needs to cool down for a while. And if it's destroyed, then the whole fabric of time unravels, sending everything spiralling into chaos."
"I don't care anymore! Just do it!" Twilight screamed in despair and hanged her head with lots of visible tears now beginning to fall. "I've lost all of my friends! Just end it! JUST END IT ALREADY!"
"Another time, my dear. But don't feel so downhearted," Black said with a smile on his face. "You still have Sunset Shimmer as your last surviving friend. But with what I have planned, you'd better make the time you have with her a time to remember," he then pulled Twilight's face up and locked gazes with her. "Once I turn Sunset Shimmer into a baby and put her with the rest of The Rainbooms, I shall see that your wish to have me reunite you with them all will be fulfilled. Farewell, Twilight Sparkle. When next we meet, I shall take Sunset away from you, and you shall have your wish!" he then ran through the time portal with Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. It quickly closed once he was out of the sight of both of the remaining teenagers.
Twilight cried when the portal had vanished. Aside from Sunset, she was the only one left who could stop Black's plans to conquer Equestria and allow his dreams to come true. As she thought of all of her friends, and the fact that the orphanage was now their seemingly permanent home, she couldn't help but let her all of her sorrow out.
Sunset Shimmer knelt down and patted Twilight on the back, mentally classifying Black as a true threat to friendship and everyone who believed in it. As she did her best to try and cheer Twilight up to get her back into trying to defeat him, she had doubts that she would help her recover from this traumatic moment in both of their lives...
To Be Continued...