Sour Sweet, Indigo Zap, and Sunny Flare were all taken to the local nursery by their parents. Despite loving the time they had been spending with their caretakers, they were curious to meet new friends and play together with them.
Deicer, Silver Lining, and Violet Plasma gently carried their children inside of the establishment and quickly signed them in for a session. Despite having to use one of their arms, they still had enough dexterity to sign the book with one arm.
The three babies looked around and occasionally put some of their fingers—or even their whole hands—into their mouths as they stared at everything around them. The cream-coloured walls were very comforting to the three of them, little smiles grew on their faces before they had even been dropped off in the nursery to be cared of for the day.
As soon as Violet put her down, Indigo Zap crawled as fast she could away from her mother, her gaze and intentions focused onto a small pile of sponge balls laying in a far-off corner of the room. Meanwhile, Sour Sweet unsurely touched the floor below her, whining and whimpering as she was slowly set down by her mother. And Sunny Flare was desperately clinging to Silver Lining, and reached for her when she was set down on the floor.
“Sunny doesn’t look like she wants you to leave, Silver.” Deicer took notice of Sunny’s raised arms.
“She always had this problem when she was a baby.” Silver picked Sunny up and gently patted her daughter’s head and rubbed her stomach. “Unless you did this routine to soothe her, she couldn’t bear being left alone—not even for a second.”
Sunny felt the circular motions gently tickling her belly whilst the light patting on her head made her giggle slightly. Her past fears were long gone and a large smile now rested on her face.
“There you go, little angel.” Silver set Sunny down once again, but this time she didn’t try to fight against it. “I’ll be back to pick you up at 3:00.” She gave Sunny a little kiss before she walked out of the room.
Deicer and Violet said their goodbyes to their own children before they too walked out of the nursery.
Indigo Zap, Sour Sweet, and Sunny Flare were now free to do whatever they could lay their eyes on in the nursery. They could see toys and blocks as far as the eye could see, along with a little table if they wanted to do some drawing, and a tiny little fort made out of padded shapes. Their minds ran through a million possibilities, but Indigo was still by the sponge balls, hugging a few of them.
Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare looked at each other, tilted their heads, and slowly crawled towards each other. When they were both close enough, they began to speak baby talk to each other, perfectly being able to understand what the other was saying.
“Who are you?” Sour Sweet asked, extending her right hand forward onto Sunny Flare’s face, causing the latter to recoil.
“Who are you?” Sunny Flare asked back.
“I don’t know. Mommy and daddy call me ‘Sour Sweet’ but I’m not sure what that means exactly,” she said, retracting her hand away from Sunny Flare.
“Ah, I see. Mine call me ‘Sunny Flare’ for some reason,” Sunny Flare said. “I don’t quite get why either.”
“Anyways, shall we call each other like that?”
Sour Sweet nodded.
“Alrighty then. First, any idea where we are and what’re going to do here?” Sunny Flare asked, looking around the room.
“Dunno. Maybe what we usually play at home?” Sour shrugged and looked for something herself, eventually finding a fort. “Ooh! What about that? What’s in there?”
“I dunno, Sour. Maybe it’s some new toys we’ve never seen before…” Sunny looked at the fort and each of the colourful walls that kept it standing.
“Only one way to find out,” Sour’s smile returned. “C’mon, Sunny! Let’s play!”
“Hey! Wait for me!” Sunny began to notice that Sour Sweet was already moving away from her. She reached out with her right hand and began to crawl towards the fort to keep up with her new friend.
Once Sour and Sunny climbed into the fort, they noticed that there was a couple of teddy bears nestled inside, and the two of them wasted no time in picking them up and cuddling them tight.
When Indigo finally got bored of the sponge balls, she soon noticed a tiny little slide poking out of one of the walls of the fort. Her smile grew wider as she crawled towards it, dropping the balls entirely. When she climbed in, she wiggled her legs as she squeezed into the little hole.
Once Indigo was inside the padded fort, she heard the childish and high-pitched laughs of Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet. With one of her brows raised, she put her finger close to her mouth and barely avoided the urge to suck on it to climb up and see what the laughter was. She climbed each step with difficulty until she noticed Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet about to ride the slide out of the fort.
Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet slid down the slide together, holding hands the whole time and laughing once again when they landed onto the padded floor below. They barely even noticed that Indigo was following them once they had stopped.
It was only after Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare had seen Indigo that they felt a warm feeling in between their legs. Looking down, they saw that they had wet themselves and their diapers were now getting saggy. Despite the fact that they had had this sensation before, they did not remember or know how to fix the problem themselves. Tears began to form in their eyes, and they began to whimper until they finally let out full-blown wails.
“Oh my! Looks like we’ve got a few wet ones here…” A well-kept woman with pink hair and a plaid dress walked up to Sour and Sunny and picked the two of them up in an attempt to calm them down. “Ssshhh… Don’t cry, little ones. I’m here.”
Sour and Sunny’s tears didn’t stop until they were both laid down onto a soft pink changing table. To them, it felt like they had been set down on a pillow, and the small comfort did reduce their tears, but they still had wet diapers and the discomfort didn’t make them feel happy either.
The woman then removed the wet diapers, crumpled them up, and tossed them into a small bin before reaching into the drawers and getting two new ones, as well as a bottle of baby powder. The new diapers were both pink and had pictures of cartoon bears and flowers on them, which caught both of the regressed girls’ attention for a short while, as they poked and stared at them for a brief moment.
When the novelty wore off, they were immediately powdered and diapered by the woman and given a kiss each before they were picked up and dropped off at a colouring table with two other babies that looked slightly familiar to them.
“What is up, beautiful people? My name is Neon Lights.” she said as she wore her headphones and fiddled around with her radio equipment.
“And I’m Dubstep Blast!” He said as he too made some calibrations of his own.
“Starting off with news today, the recent events from the Friendship Games are still on the mind as the students who were affected by the blast were slowly beginning to adapt to their new ages.”
“For those of you who don’t know, there was a catastrophic event at the Games this year involving an unknown force and some bright lights. In what could be considered playing god, most of the students from both Canterlot High and Crystal Prep were turned into even younger children, with some even turning back into babies.”
“Unfortunately, our sweet little Lemon Zest was at the epicentre of the blast, so she too suffered the youthening effects.” Laser looked back at Lemon and used her arm to signal her to walk forward. “But the good news is, she’s still as bouncy now as she was back then, and more cute too.”
“C’mon, Lemon. Say hi to the radio people.” Dubstep put his hand on Lemon’s shoulder and gave her the headset he had been wearing.
“Hi, radio people!” Lemon said as sweetly as any kid on the radio would have said it. “I’m alright, so don’t worry!”
“Aww…” Laser took the headset off of Lemon and tousled her hair before she gave the apparatus back to her husband. “Anyway, stay tuned, because at 11:00, we’ll be having an exclusive interview with some of the other victims’ parents.”
“But first, it’s time for an oldie but a goodie!” Dubstep hit a button and a jingle began to play across both the studio. “Newsworthy!”
“Our darling little Lemon’ll read the rules in case you’re just tuning in.” Laser handed a script to Lemon and gave her another microphone. “Go on, Lemon. Just read the words, and don’t be shy to ask mom and dad if you need any help.”
“In this game, the players just have to answer questions on the week’s news,” Lemon was innocently reading the script word for word. “Right answers give them a point, while wrong answers give their opponent a point. First player to ten points wins!”
“Such a little angel, isn’t she?” Dubstep said. “Anyway, we’ll have our first match-up in a few seconds, and if you want to be in round two, simple call 07584 675118 and answer a qualifying question, and we might be in touch with you very soon.”
Sugarcoat—her back rigidly blocked inside a orthopedic corset, one she had been inserted into while she waited for the surgery needed to get the bent rods out of her spine—walked towards the local kindergarten while holding hands with Fudge Numbers.
“I never thought I’d be playing with you at kindergarten, Sugar,” Fudge said. “And to be honest, I’m both excited and a little nervous too.”
“We should make up a silly word for that feeling, shouldn’t we, sis?” Sugarcoat cracked a smile. “How about nervousited?”
“Nervousited? That sounds fun. Nervousited, nervousited, nervousited! There. Now it’s stuck on my tongue.”
Sugarcoat shrugged as she tried to move forward, as fast as her little legs carried and the weight of the corset allowed her to, inside the building. She then followed her sister towards the classroom.
“Oh, hello again, Fudge!” A woman with a blonde ponytail appeared to shake Fudge’s hand. “I see you brought along your sister.” She turned to face Sugar. “Sugarcoat, wasn’t it?”
“Yep!” Sugarcoat shook the woman’s hand with more energy than she meant to.
“Well, it’s always nice to see new kids showing up here,” the woman said. “My name is Loving Embrace, and I’ll be your caretaker, guide, and overall helping hand here at kindergarten.”
“She’s also our teacher! Won’t that be great, Sugar?” Fudge asked.
“Yes it will!” Sugarcoat leapt up, and noticed that for the first time in her life, she was feeling something she had never felt before. Fun. Her parents had given her an advanced tutoring in her past life, and she had never had the chance to be a true kid. But now that the Friendship Games had come and gone, she was finally able to break free and be just like her sister.
“Sounds like you two are eager to play.” Loving said as she took both of them by their hands. “Follow me to the classroom, and we’ll get Fudge set up, and Sugarcoat introduced to her new classmates.”
Sugarcoat and Fudge walked down a single corridor with Loving holding their hands the whole way. Their small trip led them to a single door at the end of the corridor that was light green and had a number of stickers of all different things stuck onto it.
When the door was opened, Sugarcoat and Fudge Numbers saw the kindergarten classroom in all of its’ glory. There were coloured walls with drawings and crafts from the children, cartoon animals, and even a paper sky with clouds, rain, and a sun. The floor was covered entirely in carpet, and the children were either running around, sitting down, or even lying down on it. There was a little bookcase on wheels, a chest full of toys, a colouring table, and even a few tables for snack time close by a door that led to the kitchen. The last thing to notice was a set of hangers where the kids could hang up their coats and put their shoes down.
Sugarcoat marvelled at everything her eyes could see. All of the bright colours, playful children, and inviting toys made her feel like she was truly free to be the kid she was meant to be. She hung up her coat and quickly took her shoes off, seeing her sister doing the same. She was ready to go, but before she could even think of running, she was stopped by Loving.
“Whoa! Hold on there, Sugar.” She gently grabbed onto Sugarcoat’s arm and pulled back with little force, yet it was enough to stop the toddler dead in her tracks. “You can’t play until you’ve met your classmates.”
“It won’t take long, Sugar. Honest.” Fudge flashed her a gentle smile and flapped her eyelids.
“Alright.” Sugarcoat hung her head at that remark. As much as the thought of making new friends was also appealing to her, she was desperate to play with the toys in the room.
“Everyone?” Loving called at the top of her voice, getting all of the kids to stop what they were doing and focus solely on her. Good. That still works, she thought to herself. “If you’d like to get into position around the listening circle, we have a new classmate that I’d like you to meet.”
The children did not answer back and hurriedly sat neatly with their legs crossed around a marked light-blue ring of carpet which had a single armchair sitting in the centre. Their voices fell silent as they watched Loving and Sugarcoat walk into the middle, with Fudge Numbers sitting down as usual.
“Go on.” Loving gave Sugarcoat a gentle pat on the back. “Just say hello and tell them your name.”
“Hi.” She waved slowly. “My name’s Sugarcoat.”
“Hi, Sugarcoat!” the whole class chorused in perfect harmony.
“Now, just because she’s new, I don’t want her being treated as an outcast.” Loving put her hand on Sugarcoat’s shoulder. “In fact, I want you all to try and get her to join in on your games and let her play with everything she can find. It’ll help her get used to kindergarten much better.”
“Where should I sit?” Sugarcoat asked.
“Oh. Just sit anywhere you like within the listening circle, Sugar.” Loving stretched her arm out to signal all of the students to open the enclosed ring up and make more space for Sugarcoat.
She looked at all of the open gaps and saw all of the students smiling at her and wanting her to sit with them. It was a tough choice for her to make, but in the end, she sat down with two girls dressed up in a princess and a bunny outfit, smiling when the kids all shuffled up to close the ring.
“Now, first of all, I’ll call the register, and we can get started on the fun.” Loving pulled out a clipboard from the pocket on the side of the chair along with a pen.
“So, let’s start, who’s present today?”