Starlight Glimmer's Time Travel Mishap

by Foal Star

Chapter Five: A Meeting of Moms

A few hours later, Windy Whistles and Twilight Velvet came back to the daycare after having lunch together, laughing and talking about their foals. Then the two came upon two other mares who were picking up their foals. One was a peach-colored earth pony with a curly orange mane and bright green eyes. The other was a pudgy pink-coated unicorn with a mass of purple mane on her head, her eyes a shade of blue.

The earth pony was the first to notice them as she turned to see them come in and exclaimed, "Oh, hello! Are you two new to Ponyville?"

Windy put a hoof on her chest. "Oh no, I'm just visiting. I live in Cloudsdale." She then noticed Applejack sleeping on the earth pony mare’s back, suckling on her hoof. Then saw that Rarity was on the unicorn's back, meaning they were most likely the mothers of their respective foals. "I see you have a lovely baby daughter; what's her name?"

The earth pony turned her head and kissed her daughter, then said. "Her name is Applejack, my second foal. Seein’ as my husband and I were only children, we felt our first foal could use a playmate," She turned to face Windy and continued. "My name is Buttercup."

The pink-coated unicorn threw up her hooves and exclaimed. "And I'm Cookie Crumbles. I see you’ve met my daughter, Rarity."

The pegasus shook the unicorn's hoof and squeaked, seeing her shake her hoof pretty hard, "Well, Cookie Crumbles, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Windy Whistles, but you can just call me Windy. I’m the mother of Rainbow Dash, or my little Dashie as I like to call her," She hugged her shy friend and then said, "And this here is Twilight Velvet. She actually named her daughter after herself, except her daughter is named Twilight Sparkle."

The gray-coated unicorn held out a hoof and shook Cookie's hoof as well. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Cookie Crumbles. And you too, Buttercup."

Windy looked around the nursery to see most of the foals were playing, but found it odd to see Applejack and Rarity completely zonked out. "It seems that our little foals have been quite rambunctious today."

"Oh yes, they were! It took them forever to finally settle down for a nap!" Singalee exclaimed as she came over with a sleeping Rainbow Dash, Starlight, and Twilight all on her back. The caretaker then hoofed the foals to their respective mothers (with Starlight being hoofed off to Windy).

As Windy placed two of the foals onto her back, she said. "Well, that's great to hear. I'm surprised Rainbow Dash is getting along with so many foals. She doesn't warm up to other babies that often. She’s really shy around strangers, which is funny because once she warms up, there’s no stopping her from talking and flying," She cooed. “But I wouldn’t have her any other way. That’s what makes her the best foal ever!”

Buttercup took something from her mane. "Well, it seems your little Rainbow Dash and my little Applejack got along quite well. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was like they knew each other before." She then hoofed them a picture with some messy hoof prints splattered all over it that had been the work of the two tomcoltish little fillies.

Windy couldn't help but put a hoof to her chest and daw at the painting as Buttercup did the same. "Well, seeing as I live quite a ways from Cloudesdale, why don't you keep this one? I’ve already got plenty of hoof paintin’’s back home from Applejack and my other foal: Big Macintosh."

“Fine by me! We already have a ton of hoof paintings from our little Dashie! But I would love to frame this one someday!"

"Oh, why so?" Buttercup questioned.

Windy brushed some of her mane, feeling embarrassed to reveal this. Still, seeing she was among other mothers, she couldn't help but confess her reasoning. "I'm planning to keep a trophy for every first thing Rainbow Dash does: Her first words, her first steps, her first tooth, you name it. When she gets older, I would love to show her all the special little things she's done over the years, that way she never forgets how awesome she is! She’s the only foal I’ll ever be able to have," She blushed. “Since I obviously can’t keep her in diapers forever, preserving the memories of when she was little is the next best thing.”

Buttercup brought a hoof to her face and giggled. "Won't that be rather embarrassing when she's older? I mean, are you gonna keep her first potty chair, her first bib, or the saddlebag from her first day of school?"

Windy blushed and snorted."Maybe not things like that; they’d be pretty hard to preserve. Pictures will have to do. But I think it would be a great way to always remind me of how special she is. She’s gonna grow up so fast; I just know it."

Cookie Crumbles burst out laughing! “Oh, I should do the same for little Rarity here! She's so creative! In fact, she loves to draw me pictures with crayons. She’s such a little artist." The mare then showed off a mass of purple scribbles making the other mares dawn.

It wasn't long until every mare nearby was showing off their foals' "creative" artworks. They were so engrossed in the conversation that it wasn’t until Windy looked up at a clock nearby, saw that they'd been chatting for nearly an hour, and suggested. "Well, we could chat here all day about our adorable foals. But why don't we go somewhere and relax while our babies are napping? Celestia knows we probably all need a break."

Cookie Crumbles gave a long relaxing sigh and said, "Yes, that sounds lovely. Lucky for you, Ponyville has an amazing spa! We can go freshen up there while our foals are napping!"

Twilight Velvet added. "Yes, that sounds great, but who would be watching the foals? I don’t want anything to happen to my little Twilight Sparkle."

Buttercup lifted her head up and suggested. "Oh, my husband is picking up our son from school. We can ask him to watch the foals while we girls have a spa date!"

"That sounds like a plan. Are you sure your husband won't mind?" Windy asked with a worried look on her face. “I know my husband would be overwhelmed having to handle a lot of foals. Celestia knows little Dashie is sometimes too much even for me; she once even managed to tie me up when I was trying to chase after her.”

"Bright Mac will be fine; he knows his way around foals. He comes from a big family. Plus, sometimes he can be quite a foal himself,” Buttercup teased. “Come on now, let's get a move on! We ain’t got all day." Buttercup insisted. She then led the way with the group of mares and their sleeping infants on their backs.

---

It was a nice trot for the group of mothers as Buttercup led them through Ponyville, occasionally pointing out places of interest such as the local sweetshop Sugarcube Corner or the Golden Oak Library, a library literally built into an old oak tree which Windy found quite impressive.

Eventually, they all came to a massive apple orchard with a farmhouse and an adjacent barn at one end of it. Windy was hit with the smells of apples wafting from the apple trees as they headed into the farmhouse. Within the living room, a bulky (and fairly large) red-coated colt with a blonde mane and green eyes popped out with a smile and chirped, "Hey, Ma!"

"Hello, Little Mac!" The mare scooped the toddler foal into her hooves and held him close to her chest. The colt fought back, whining, "Ma, I told you I’m Big Mac now! I’m just like Pa!"

Buttercup rifled through her son's mane and cooed. "You will always be my Little Mac, whether you like it or not. Besides, you know we talked about this: You’re only young one; you don’t wanna be growin’ up too fast and missin’ out on all the fun things you can only do as a foal."

Windy watched the scene play out, and she couldn't help but place a hoof over her chest and daww. "Awww, so this is Applejack's older brother?"

Buttercup rifled her son's mane and added. "Yeah, he's my little Macintosh and takes after his father. I thought Little Mac would be a fitting name, but he insists on bein’ called Big Mac. We only just finally got him fully potty trained a little while ago, not that we minded."

"Oh, that's adorable!" Cookie Crumbles cooed. “Pretty soon, I know my little Rarity will want to start potty training. She absolutely hates using her diapers, even when she can’t help it.”

The little colt pouted and stomped his pudgy hooves and whined. "Nah, uh! I'm not adorable, I Big Mac! Stop makin’ fun of me!"

Just then, a massive, broad-chested yellow-coated stallion with a bright red mane trotted into the living room. He smiled at his wife and asked. "Buttercup, what's goin’ on? Who are these ponies? I thought you were just pickin’ up Applejack, not bringin’ back an entire daycare!"

The mare looked lovingly at her husband and explained. "Oh, these are some other mares I met at the daycare, Bright Mac," She nuzzled her husband's nuzzle, kissed him and said, "They have foals of their own. And lucky for us, they’re all tuckered out from playing all day. It seems like they really had fun together, I think they might have become friends."

"Well, that's good to hear," Bright Mac sighed in relief. “Just keepin’ an eye on Little Mac and Applejack is exhaustin’ enough.”

Buttercup looked a little guilty and continued. "Well, the girls and I want to go have a spa date if that's ok with you. And we were hopin’ you’d maybe look after the foals for us."

Bright Mac started looking frazzled, then stammered, "....Mm, I um…I don't think I'm well equipped to handle five foals all by myself. And I don’t think Little Mac’s gonna be much help; he’s only a toddler, after all. Just ‘cause he’s not in diapers anymore doesn’t mean he doesn’t still need tendin’ to from time to time."

Buttercup waved a hoof. "From what we were told at the daycare, they played all day and just started their naps, so I'm sure they'll be mostly asleep while we're gone. Besides, we won’t be gone that long, really. Just ensure their diapers are clean, and give them a milk bottle if they get fussy. I left plenty in the fridge this mornin’; it should be just what they need for nutrition."

Bright Mac seemed to relax, then said. "Don't worry, I've taken care of Little Mac… I mean Big Mac and Applejack before. You go on and have fun." He quickly corrected himself when he saw the look his son had given him.

"Thank you, I'll pay you back later! Just name your price!" Buttercup whispered as she kissed Bright Mac, and then she and the other mares took their foals upstairs. They then separated the babies into two spare cribs, with Twilight, Starlight, and Rarity in one and Applejack and Rainbow Dash in the other.

Big Mac then hopped over to get a better look at the sleeping babies. "Wow, they're so cute! What’re their names?"

Windy showed off her babies and pointed them out, "The pegasus is Rainbow Dash, and this little pink unicorn is Starlight Glimmer. Apparently, little Starlight got separated from her parents, so my husband and I are taking care of her until we can reunite her with her family."

Twilight Velvet nudged her daughter and said. "And this little unicorn is Twilight. Twilight Sparkle named her after myself," She then giggled. “It’s funny; you remind me a lot of my other foal. His name is Shining Armor, and like you, he tries to act older than he really is. I haven’t even gotten him fully potty trained yet; he’s still having some problems because I gave birth to him sooner than I expected,” A smile formed on her face. “But I’m sure he’ll be just as good a big brother to Twilight as I’m sure you are to Applejack.”

Big Mac was wide-eyed as he asked. "Wow! So they're Applejack's friends now? My sister has friends?"

Windy paused and then said. "Yes, I believe so. The caretaker told us they were inseparable."

Twilight Velvet then suggested. “Would you like to meet my little Shining Armor? I think he’d love to have a playmate his own age for once.”

Buttercup looked at Twilight Velvet and asked. "What if we set up playdates here after daycare? Would that be ok?”

"Of course,” Twilight Velvet proposed. “I'll talk to my husband about seeing when we can bring Shining over. Maybe he’ll pick up a few things about how to use the potty from Big Mac."

The little colt started to bounce up and down in excitement, then his mother nuzzled him and said. "Alright, we're goin’ to go out for a bit, but we’ll be back. You go help Daddy with the chores, ok? You also better be on your best behavior while I'm gone. Don’t give your daddy a hard time while he’s takin’ care of the foals. If he asks you to help him out, you gotta do your best to help, okay?"

"Ok, Mama, I'll be good!" Big Mac chimed back.

Buttercup then kissed her colt on the forehead and watched him run downstairs and towards the apple orchard outside. Once Big Mac was gone, the mares all trotted off to the spa.

---

An hour after they had left Sweet Apple Acres, Windy and the mothers were relaxing in a massive hot tub with green mud masks on. Windy felt relieved, having had a chance to preen and have her hooves manicured, something she’d never been able to find the time for caring for Rainbow Dash up to this point. She almost wondered if a few gray hairs would start forming in her rainbow mane due to how exhausting caring for Rainbow was.

Now Windy was relaxing, soaking up the steamy water filled with calming bath salts. After an hour of near silence, Windy started to talk with the other mares as Buttercup asked. "So, Windy tell me, where did you come from?"

"Oh, isn't it obvious? I'm from Cloudsdale," Windy boasted. “For me, it’s the only place to be!”

"Oh, and what brought you to Ponyville?" Buttercup asked. “We don’t tend to get a lot of pegasi, aside from those who work on our weather team.”

Windy gulped and paused for a second, knowing she couldn't reveal everything about how she was trying to help a bunch of time travelers. "Well, I, um…came to visit a friend Eliabzeth Whooves and she was the one who told me about the nursery here."

Cookie gasped! "Oh, I know her! She's a friend of mine as well. She moved here about a month ago. She had a baby colt, correct?"

Windy gave a curt nod. "Yes, she does. He's quite a genius for his age, and he’s not even out of diapers yet.."

Twilight Velvet rolled her eyes and scoffed. "My daughter is way smarter than him. She probably already knows her letters and numbers. She probably won’t even need to go into kindergarten; she’ll be old enough for grade school as soon as she’s out of diapers; that’s how smart she is!"

Windy could help but laugh at Twilight Velvet getting jealous over her daughter and exclaimed, "Oh, don't get jealous; we all think our babies are the best!"

Cookie casually threw a hoof as she replied, "I'm not jealous. My little Rarity is perfect the way she is. She’s always really good at letting me know whenever she needs anything, the only time she ever makes a fuss is when I have to change her diapers," She then let out a relaxing sigh. "Whether our babies are perfect or not, you have to admit It's nice to relax and not worry about them. Being a mother is exhausting. It feels like I’ve aged almost a hundred years!"

Buttercup then placed a hoof over face with a guilty expression. "Oh yes, you're right. I just hope my husband can handle things. Leaving him with five babies might've been a bad idea now that I think about it."

Twilight Velvet came closer to Buttercup and tried to reassure her. "Oh, I'm sure he's fine. If he's anything like my hubby Night Light, he's taking fatherhood well. Night Light is the best husband I could’ve asked for; he’s so organized."

Buttercup turned her attention toward Twilight Velvet and asked. "You mentioned you have a son as well? Tell us more about him."

"Ah yes, my little Shining Armor,” Twilight Velvet cooed. “He's quite the rambunctious colt. He loves to play games involving him saving a princess from a dragon. Even though he's not yet in kindergarten, he seems to have a knack for helping other foals even if he gets in trouble."

"Wow!” Buttercup exclaimed. “My Little Mac is going to be in kindergarten soon! I just know he’ll do well."

"That's wonderful!" Twilight Velvet chirped. “Hopefully, in another year or so, Shining will be ready for kindergarten too.”

Cookie then turned to Twilight Velvet and asked. "So, where are you from again?"

"Canterlot," Twilight Velvet explained. “Have you been there? It’s a truly lovely place any time of year. We even use magic to change the seasons; there’s no hassle, and seasons don’t overstay their welcome.”

"You don't say! My grandmother is from Canterlot!” Cookie Crumbled pointed out. “She moved to Ponyville years ago after she retired from working in a boutique. I think she’s who my little Rarity inherited her fashion sense from,” She giggled and then asked. “I've never visited the city myself. How is it?"

The other unicorn sipped beneath the water a little, seeming to be a bit shy. "Oh, it's not all that special, full of stuffy ponies who think they're better than everypony else. But it is quiet up there, so there aren’t that many distractions. Now if only I could find a foalsitter who wasn’t so full of themselves. It would give me more time to work on my novels.".

"Oh, what do you write?" Cookie Crumbles asked. “Perhaps I’ve read some of them?”

Velvet blushed. "Romance novels, mostly. But I have started dipping my hooves into children’s fantasy because of Shining and Twilight. I even won the Daring Do Award for excellence in children’s fiction not too long ago."

Buttercup was now interested as she approached the unicorn., "Oh, you must recommend some of your stories. Maybe they’ll help my son get more into readin’."

"Of course, I'll be sure you'll enjoy my latest book,” Velvet commented. “It's about a mare from a rich family, stuck on a cruise ship with a poor stallion. But the boat gets struck by an iceberg and now the ship is slowly sinking into the sea."

Cookie clapped her hooves over her mouth and cried, "Oh my! Sounds romantic and thrilling!"

"Yes, it was recently published, and it seems to be doing pretty well." Velvet commented

Windy couldn't help but giggle at seeing how the other mares were gushing over Twilight Velvet's new book: It seemed she had laid the seeds of their friendship that would help get Starlight and her friends home. "I don't mean to interrupt, but seeing how we all have foals, I thought we could have them have a big playdate."

Cookie got excited and squealed. "Like a giant party?!"

"Yes, a giant party,” Windy proposed. “I might have to invite a few others if that's ok? And I think the best place to host it at is Buttercup's house: Sweet Apple Acres.”

"Yes, that sounds lovely!” Twilight Velvet suggested. “Let's schedule a date when my husband and I aren't busy. Maybe I’ll even be able to bring Shining along so he and Big Mac can play together."

Windy was thrilled to see all of the mares were excited as her, and for the rest of the afternoon, the mares chatted and discussed the details of the party.

---

After the spa trip, Windy returned to Elizabeth Hooves's home with Starlight in tow. She had Twilight Velvet keep the real baby Twilight and her daughter at Sweet Apple Acres. She didn't feel that keeping the actual foals and time travelers separate was the best course of action.

That evening as the mares had their foals all around a table, being spoon-fed foal food for dinner as they talked, Windy explained, "So, this Friday evening, we're having a massive party for all the foals. And I bet if we can get all of Twilight's friends to come to this party, I assume it will help get all the time travelers back home."

Starswirl then cleared his throat, and everypony turned their attention to the baby colt who said. "Yes, I tink with ta pwans in pwace, ta time machine is weady. We ampwified it to utiwize ta magic fwom ta ewements of hawmony to give it enough enewgy to send us back home."

"Yeah, guess science and magic can work together." Dr. Whooves admitted with a cute pout.

Twilight sighed in relief. "Bout time you two stopped fighting. It was dwiving me cwazy," She then placed her hooves onto her food tray. "But we stiww need to find two mowe of my fwiends: Pinkie Pie and Fwuttewshy. Also, we gotta get ta ewements of hawmony, then put them back."

Starlight was sucking on a bottle as she listened and popped it out to say. "Otay, so we should split up and get everything ready before ta meetup, wight?”

Twilight nodded. "Yeah. And whiwe ya was aww doing youw own ting, I spent my time making these," She took out six rattles. They each had a different color and symbol: "Ya see when my baby sewf and her friends twuwy become fwiends, tey wiww need ta ewements of hawmony next to them. But we dun want ta foaws to know bout them yet or twy to eat tem, seeing that tey awe babies. So when we get ta ewements, we'ww put them into ta wattwes, then tat enewgy wiww be magicawwy winked to ta time machine."

Windy was blown away by this ingenious idea as she whispered. "Did you think of all that yourselves?"

Twilight started to get excited, bouncing up and down as she continued. "Yeah! So Dw. Whooves, Stawsiww, and I wiww get ta ewements, while Stawwight and Windy should go get ta west of my friends! We'll be back to owa owiginaw timewines in no time!"

Windy was impressed by the plan and couldn't help but compliment the little filly wiping her mouth and ruffling her mane. "Wow, Twilight Velvet wasn't kidding! Her daughter is smart! Such a smarty pants you are!"

"Stop it! Ya gonna make me pee!" Twilight giggled as she kicked about in her diaper.

Windy smirked, giving the padding a few pats. "I think it's already too late for that!" She then started to tickle the filly with the tips of her wings until there was a hiss. After changing the filly's diaper, Windy added, "Actually, lucky for you, I know Fluttershy's mother, Vaporous. She and her husband work at the weather factory. Her daughter Fluttershy goes to the same daycare I take Rainbow Dash to. But then that leaves Pinkie Pie. Where is she right now?"

Twilight turned to face the pegasus and instructed. "She's aww ta way at a wock farm in ta south. I'll give ya an addwess fwom what I wemembew, but she shouwd be easy to get to come over. Pinkie Pie wouwd nevew miss a pawty, no mattew wha. But hew pawents awe anothew issue. Tey wiww be hawd to convince to wet their baby go to a party with a gwoup of ponies tey neva met before."

Windy shrugged as she plopped a bottle into Twilight's mouth and let the filly suckle down the contents. "I'm sure we can convince Pinkie Pie's parents to join the playdate, so there's no need to worry. Just focus on getting the Elements of Harmony…though I'm not really sure sending a group of foals into the Everfree Forest is a good idea."

Elizabeth was midway spoon-feeding her son when she scoffed. "There's just timberwolves. We can take care of them. I'll keep these foals safe."

"Yeah, I gots a few twicks up my diapee fow tose timbewwowves!" Starswirl chirped, then the tired-looking colt let out a yawn.

Starlight yawned too, and stretched her stubby limbs. "Weww, I had a wong day. Why dun we do aww tat tomorwow? I tink we gots a good pwan."

Windy flew over, wiped the baby unicorn's face, and said. " Yes, let's get your foals to sleep and into fresh diapers, then it's off to get back to your original timelines!"

The foals all cheered, except Starlight who looked sheepish as Windy gave Starlight a bottle of her milk. And it was only a short time until all four babies were guzzling down bottles of mare milk. They were then given diaper changes and were carried upstairs into an improvised nursery, where the foals were all tucked into Dr. Whooves' crib.

Windy stayed behind as Elizabeth went downstairs to clean up and keep an eye on the foals as they slept. Despite knowing Starlight wasn't her daughter, she couldn't feel connected to her now, seeing how much she cared for her. Maybe one day she would meet Starlight's mom, and they could share their adorable stories about the cute little pink baby unicorn. But for now, she'd relish every moment she could with her foster daughter.