Little Jolts of Shadow

by Shadowmane PX-41

Reunited

The next morning, the girls were back on the route to the daycare. Only this time, the Shadowbolts were chattering among themselves as to what they could do there, be it on their own or with their new friends. Either way, they were giddy at the thought of returning. Sunset went into the building, checked the Shadowbolts in, carried them back into the nursery, set them down, then went on her way. But not before giving them a small kiss. She watched as they all blushed, then promptly grinned and left them.

It didn’t take long for the girls to find the Dazzlings again. They weren’t hard to miss with their poofy, vibrant hairstyles and magical pacifiers. Lemon Zest went over to greet them, with the other Shadowbolts close behind her.

“Welcome back, girls. Nice to see you’ve taken to this place.” Adagio smiled as the Shadowbolts sat down with her and her two sisters.

“Ready for another fun day in daycare, girls?” Sonata asked, gripping Mr Stuffington in her hands. “I know we are.”

“You always say that, Sonata. But it is true.” Aria patted her back softly. “Daycare has such a wonderful effect on people. You can really lose yourself in the toys and games like us. I don’t think I’ve had this kind of life for a long time.”

“Hear hear. I thought that I would have hated this thing, but some time here really managed to change that for us.” Sugarcoat felt the other Shadowbolts wrapping their arms around her shoulders.

“Yeah. Everything’s been so good since that regression. In fact, last night, we all went down to the kitchen and ate cookies together!” Lemon Zest tossed her arms skyward.

“Cookies? Lucky son of a gun...” Adagio’s eyes widened at the mention of cookies. Of everything babyhood had to offer, she had yet to taste the phenomenon Lemon was telling her of. “Here, all we get is mush and milk. Nothing really special when compared to a cookie.”

“What did it taste like? Tell me!” Sonata put her elbows to her chest, planting her hands on her chin at the same time. “I’ve always wanted to have a cookie as a baby!”

“Well, it was just the nicest little thing ever.” Sunny Flare crawled up, replying in Lemon’s place. “The rough, yet smooth texture. The gooey chocolate chips. The fluffy crumbs in your mouth. We all went ga-ga for them.”

Lemon Zest ended up laughing, wiggling her legs at the sound of Sunny's unintentional pun. “I get it! Ga-ga!”

It took a few moments to register, but next Indigo laughed. Then Sour, then Sugarcoat, then even Sunny realised what she had done, joining in on the chortle-festival.

“Aww... They made a baby pun. That’s just so cute!” Sonata squealed and clasped her hands together. “And so well-done too. They went ga-ga for it because they’re babies. That’s just such a great pun, isn’t it?”

The Dazzlings waited patiently for the girls to stop laughing. Then, when they did eventually stop, Adagio and her sisters went to retrieve five more pacifiers, before delivering them back to the Shadowbolts. They all held out the soothers in their little hands, watching as the five babies squeaked in delight, then took the binkies and popped them in their mouths, once again letting their suckles start back up.

“Now then, let’s play!” Sonata beamed as the eight of them begun another day in daycare.

As the girls went past the other toys and babies in the room, their eyes eventually found something new. A small slide could be seen by one of the walls in the room, with steps leading up to it made out of more fluff-filled shapes. Another baby had just sent themselves down it and crawled off to another part of the room, leaving the slide open for eight more padded rumps to grace its’ incline.

Sour Sweet cooed at the sight and quickened her pace, brushing past the others as she made it to the shapes and climbed up them, finding her way to the apex of the slide in no time at all. Pacifier still bobbing, she brought Mr Cuddlebutt to her chest and hugged him securely, then hurled herself down the slide, letting out a cry of delight as she slid to the bottom, skidding a few inches on her diaper before she landed on her belly.

Indigo Zap was next to go down the slide. She lifted her hands and squealed as she fell down the slide. After her was Sugarcoat, then Sunny, and finally Lemon Zest, with the Dazzlings all following suit. All of their reactions were similar; screams of unbridled ecstasy as their little bodies careened into the softness of the floor.

"Oh, that was cool! I mean, I've done a lot of slides before, but I never knew just how much of a rush the small ones had." Indigo Zap pushed herself off of the floor. "Guess that's just another one of the benefits, huh?"

"I'm happy that you're all liking this, girls. It has been a long time since the three of us had any friends to call our own." Adagio nodded at the Shadowbolts. "After a couple of thousand years, friendships have been hard to come by for the three of us."

"Unless you count friendships with all the other kids here, then... yeah. Not really much in the way of friends. And even if we are friends, all they can really say is gibberish we don't understand." Sonata looked over to some of the other babies in the room, their mindless natures showing as some tried to eat some of the toys, or blindly flailed them around.. "I guess that kind of friendship doesn't really count, when you think about it..."

"Wait, a few thousand?" Sugarcoat's eyes widened. "B-but you're not that old, girls..."

"If you're not counting magic turning us into babies, I turned 3,678 last week; Aria hit the age of 3,254 six months ago; and Sonata's birthday is going to be in two days time, where she's going to turn 3,199." Adagio lifted a finger."But if you are counting the magic, then we're all just a month old—not that it matters any more thanks to the pacifiers able to keep us young."

"Age is just a construct, really. Nobody ever needs age to be happy with themselves." Aria went back over to the slide's apex, readying herself for another run down it. "The only thing age really does for you is decay. You lose your innocence, your imagination crumbles, and you lose whatever fun you ever had when you were a little kid. That's why I don't ever want to grow up ever again. I've been down that road once before and all it's gotten me, Adagio, and Sonata is trouble and regret."

Adagio sighed as she watched Aria slide back down to her side. "Seems like a lifetime ago that we were sirens thrust into a world we knew nothing about, doesn't it?" She asked. "Now, we're permanent residents of a daycare centre, living our lives in heaven; free from the tyranny and twisted rules of the outside world..."

"Speaking of which, how did you get here? How did you get regressed like this?" Sour Sweet asked.

"Well, I could tell you, but it's a bit of a long story. But, I suppose babies do love a good story, so I might as well oblige." Adagio watched as the five Shadowbolts crawled over to her, then sat down in a semi-circle around her. "Well, it was just another day in Canterlot. We were three big girls wandering through the streets, trying to find something to do after we'd lost our magic."

"We had magic before all that. But when we went into Canterlot High and tried hosting a Battle of the Bands to try and get some more, a girl named Sunset Shimmer and her friends intervened. I'm sure you know them by now, right?" Aria lifted a brow. "After all, Sunset is your caretaker."

"Basically, we were meanies back then. We thought about ourselves and nobody else. We sung our songs, they all got angry with each other, we ate up that anger, and that was our past life," said Sonata, tipping her hand. "So Sunset, being the superhero that she is, decided to get her friends together and fight back with some of her own songs. Things happened and we were put into a showdown situation. Needless to say, we lost."

"After that, the three of us fell into utter disarray. We were constantly arguing with each other, all trying to shift the blame on to others, even got into a few fist-fights or whatever they're called..." Adagio rolled her eyes.

"I think the term is a catfight," Lemon Zest interjected. "That's what we always call it whenever two girls get into a fight."

"Well, whatever you want to call it, we were pretty angry with each other. And we just happened to take that anger near Canterlot High in the middle of the night. Nearly woke up the whole neighbourhood with our spat." Sonata twiddled her fingers as she thought back to the night of her regression. "I remember Adagio saying we were both weak and undeserving of being sirens, followed by Aria trying to throw her a left hook, with me trying to stop them from fighting. It was a horrible sight, girls. You wouldn't have liked it."

"Yeah. It was right before that magical moment, I guess you could say." Aria looked into the other Dazzlings' eyes. "While we were fighting, some magic spat out of that statue and landed on us. Turned the three of us into these little wonders and gave us these pacifiers."

"At first, we were so scared when we turned into babies. We ended up crying for at least ten minutes, give or take maybe three to five. But after that, we decided to see if we could get some help, so we wandered around for a while. Again, still at odds with one another." Adagio pushed her hands together. "We found this place one night, fell asleep behind a bush. The next morning, we went inside and we've been here ever since, raised by the Embrace sisters. Warm, Loving, and Sweet. They've been like mamas to the three of us and I'm never going to forget them; even when they move on and find another line of work."

"The first day when we were babies, we were just as shocked and mortified as you were, girls." Aria toddled forward to the Shadowbolts. "We had no idea what to do, we had no idea where to start, we'd basically been caught with our pants down. The only one who really seemed to be on board with the idea was Sonata."

"Yeah. What can I say? You've gotta stay somewhat positive about something like this." Sonata twisted her wrist clockwise. "Plus, I was one of the first to discover that the pacifiers we had were magic. But I didn't know what kind of magic it was. Either way, I made the situation somewhat more bearable."

"After a few weeks or so, we were completely calmed down. We accepted that we were babies and we've moved on from our past. We didn't need our past to be happy, to be free, to enjoy everything and everyone around us." Adagio stretched her arms out, pulling both Aria and Sonata into a hug. "Others think that growing up is a blessing. But it's nothing more than a curse. To be truly free, you must be a baby."

"Babies don't ever have to think. They don't ever have to worry or feel like it's their fault when something goes wrong. They just go on their merry way and play all day. And it's going to stay that way for the three of us." Sonata hugged her sisters tighter. "We're never going to grow up. We don't ever want to grow up. No-one and nothing is going to change our minds on that front."

"And if Sunset and her friends want to try and be the heroes that everyone wants them to be, then we'll just let them go about their lives. Us, on the other hand? We'll be in here. As far away from her as possible and as happy as possible." Aria closed her eyes. "To being babies."

"To being babies..." The other two sirens parroted as their foreheads met each other, drifting off once more into the wordless bliss of pacifier suckles.

"So... you haven't had friends in a long time?" Sugarcoat repeated the question. "And we're the first things you've seen in years that could fit the bill, right?"

"If you want to say it like that then—" Adagio didn't even get the chance to finish as she felt something wrap around her belly. From behind, Sunny Flare was giving her a hug, grinning as she pressed her body into Adagio.

"You need a friend, girls. If you've forgotten what it's like to have them, then maybe we should teach you," said Sunny Flare. "After all, you've taught us how to feel better about this mess we're all in, so it's only fair that we help you rediscover what it means to have friends by your side; ones that'll help you feel much happier."

"Yeah. The best thing you could use right now is a best friend." Lemon Zest came over with Sour Sweet, pulling Aria and Sonata into small hugs of their own. "We're all babies, we're all happy to be babies, so what's stopping us from being the bestest of best friends?"

"Yeah. We're all going to be like this for a while, so I think it'd be in both of our best interests to be friends with each other. Friends who play together, who laugh together, who cry together, all that kind of stuff. It's the least that we can do after all of the stuff that you've done for us in terms of introducing us back into the good part of our babyhoods..." Sour Sweet added, and before long, all of the Shadowbolts had surrounded Adagio and company.

"Here's to you, Dazzlings. You've not had friends for a while, so we're going to be the newest ones." Indigo pulled everyone into a group hug with the Dazzlings at the heart of it all. "To our new best friends, everyone."

"To our new best friends!" The other Shadowbolts called out gleefully as they wriggled into the snuggles of each other and the Dazzlings.

Wh-what am I feeling? Adagio asked herself mentally as a warm sensation filled her chest. Maybe it was because of all of the babies around her hugging her into submission, or maybe it was something else entirely. All this talk about being friends is... No, no, I'm not ready for another friend. I don't think I even remember what friendship is supposed to be!

Friends? You've only really known us for two whole sessions in daycare, girls. I think acquaintances is more the term you're looking for. Still... Aria did roll her eyes to begin with, but when she saw the happy smiled tucked behind the Shadowbolts' pacifiers, she couldn't help but think more about the prospect of friendship. I've gotta admit, this isn't something that I was expecting to see today. But if it's natural for babies to make friends with anyone, then I guess it kinda goes with the territory. What the heck, girls? I'll be your friend if that's what you really want...

Ooh! This is going to be one of the most fun days ever! I mean, it already was fun thanks to the whole forever babies kinda thing, but now that the Shadowbolts actually wanna be our friends? It's gonna make things all the more fun! Sonata squealed internally while on the outside, she just continued to suck the pacifier and fall into the group hug some more. I wonder if the other girls are just as giddy as I am, to know that we finally have friends after so, so long? Maybe they're just as excited as me but don't know how to say it? Either way, I'm so so so ready for friendship!

Comments

[The Bricklayer]

Oh, so all Adagio needs is a friend does she...?

[Shadowmane PX-41]

9631676
Guess I should probably fix that...

[Wilddog88]

I think I see where this is going. I think the magic is divided half hitting the dazzling and the other half hit the Shadowbolts. I think when they accept friendship the magic will start to reage them. I’m guessing 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 4 years. Then 7, 10, 13, 15, back to normal.