Welcome to Daycare
The wind blew through the streets of Ponyville with foals all dressed up and running about on Nightmare Night. On the edge of town, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash stood staring at the rundown thatched two-story home before them. The peeling blue paint around the window frames gave off a sense that the estate was silently crying. Various legends floated around about this strange abode, nopony quite sure who owned it in the past. It was those myths that had drawn them there this very night.
“Come on, Fluttershy, it’ll be fine!” Rainbow said, having struggled to convince Fluttershy to come along with her to check this place out, knowing her friend could flee at any moment. Granted, she probably could have picked a different night than one of the spookiest times of the year.
“I’m not so sure...I mean, there have been horror stories of ponies going inside there and never coming out!” Fluttershy cried out as she bit her hooves, every bone in her body screaming at her to just turn tail and run.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Oh, Come on. It's an old abandoned nursery? What’s the worst that could happen? A bunch of ghost babies drooling slime all over you?”
Fluttershy’s knees shook slightly, but she does manage to let out a short laugh at the thought. “Yeah, you're right...maybe they are just old pony tales.”
“Yeah! I’m telling you they’re all just fake stories to sound spooky around a campfire. Have you ever met anyone who knew anyone who went inside?”
“Um, well no...but you never know.” Fluttershy scuffed her hoof on the dirt.
“ Whatever, let’s just go exploring,” Rainbow said, snickering, before opening the front doors and yelling. “Hello, anypony here!? I came to register my giant foal!?”
“Haha, very funny, Rainbow!” Fluttershy replied, rolling her eyes as she walked inside, a little surprised to find the front door unlocked. Upon entering, the sudden rush of air from outside sent the years of accumulated dust flying, causing her to sneeze. Layers of grime and dust covered most of the main hall, with sizable cobwebs adorning the corners. Just how long had this place sat without any occupants?
Rainbow was quick to notice how much filth was around and laughed. “Could you imagine if Rarity had come with us!?” Rainbow kicked at a pile of dust, watching it dance lazily in the air.
Fluttershy smiled. “I can’t imagine she would want to stay here very long. Let alone come inside.” Making her way through the main hall, she came across the first room noticing it had a bunch of old cribs lined up against the wall, most rotting away. An old changing table sat in the back of the room. “Awww, this must've been the nap room.” Fluttershy dawed moving in to take a closer look.
Rainbow also followed her and gazed at the few faded crayon pictures still hanging on the walls. “I wonder if any famous pegasi slept in these cribs?”
“‘Maybe? It would be nice if we found an old diary to tell us about this place.” Fluttershy whispered as she opened the old cabinets under the changing table. Inside were old cloth diapers, all mouldy and in states of decay. Many cans sat there as well, all with faded labels..“Hmm, nothing here.”
Rainbow paused during her search spotting something in one of the cribs. To her bafflement, upon the mattress sat a Daring Do plush. It looked in good shape, unlike the rest of the room. “N...no way!” She picked it up and examined the tag. “This...this is brand new! How did this get here!?”
Fluttershy turned and tilted her head. “Oh? How could you tell?”
“I uh...ugh fine! Yeah, I bought one like this at a Daring Do Con last year, alright! But how could a brand new plush be in this old place?” Rainbow asked, her cheeks now flushed with red.
Fluttershy shrugged. “Some school foals could’ve left it,” she suggested.
“There are no trials or hoof prints. You would have seen them if they had come inside here.” Rainbow suddenly felt a shiver up her spine, the sensation fading soon after.
Fluttershy giggled as she thought of Rainbow snuggling a Daring Do plush in her sleep. “I’m sorry, but do you sleep with your plush? That’s just so adorable.”
“Ugh, you better not tell anypony what I said!” Rainbow huffed as she looked at the doll and stomped off.
Fluttershy sighed, “oh, I'm just teasing you.” As they left the nap room, she noticed that Rainbow was a bit shorter, not by a lot. She shook her head. “Must be my eyes or something.”
Approaching the next room, they see it was a storage room filled with old wooden toys and stuffed animals worn out and dusty. Fluttershy sighed at the state of things and whispered, “it's so sad to see toys like these all crumbling away... I might sound like Twilight, but they would be better off in a museum.”
Rainbow Dash, for some reason, sat down and hugged the Daring Do plush close to her chest. “Yeah...I can kind of see what you mean, Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy gasped happily, “Look, Rainbow, a rocking horse,” she pointed to a faded pink wooden horse and moved towards it, putting a hoof on the saddle. She felt like she wanted to try riding it.
Rainbow giggled, “Fluttershy, you're gonna break it if you try riding that old thing.”
“No, I won’t! Just watch!” Fluttershy got on the old rocking horse and slowly swung herself back and forth, the wood creaking all the while. She giggled, bouncing up and down and having a lot of fun.
Rainbow gasped, seeing something else in the toy room that caught her eye. “No way!” She walked closer to it and saw that there was a Spitfire plushie and a Soarin plush still in their boxes! “These are the new ones that haven’t even hit the market yet!”
Fluttershy snickered, “Awww, sounds like you're quite the collector of plushies, Rainbow.”
Rainbow blushed. “Yeah...well...like I said, don’t tell anypony, okay?” She didn’t seem to care how odd it was for these plushies to be here as she took them out of their boxes. Rainbow poked their bellies and heard them say phrases like “Go Wonderbolts!” “You can fly just like us!” Spitfire even had the phrase, “Come on, is that the best you can do?” Rainbow rolled her eyes, “ugh, I gotta tell those manufacturing companies to please stop taking ideas from Spitfire. She forgets that little foals mostly play with these toys.”
Fluttershy continued to slowly rock and smiled. “Oh, I guess it’s sort of strange how they are here if nopony has been around this place for some time.”
“Yeah? I wonder if there’s a plush thief, and this is their stash!” Rainbow chimed, looking around with a careful gaze.
Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “Rainbow? Even I know there’s no such thing as plush thieves,” she said. Getting bored of the rocking horse, she climbed off and squeaked as she plopped to the floor. “Huh? Did I get smaller?”
Rainbow turned around, spotting something new. “Hey! What’s with all the pimples?”
“What?” Fluttershy rubbed her face feeling the little bumps. “Did this place make me break out or something!?”
“Huh, maybe? Just rub some ointment on them when you get home.” Rainbow responded as she stuffed her plushies behind a wing.
Fluttershy sighed, “Yeah, I guess...though your voice sounds different? Like when you were a teen.”
“You're hearing things, Fluttershy! I always sound like this!” Rainbow replied, her voice cracking. She went back into the hallway in anticipation of finding more plushies. Fluttershy followed along as they came into another room. This one had old, warped, and rotting rocking chairs. Rainbow tilted her head. “Huh? What's this room?”
“Oh...um...Rainbow, this is the uh breastfeeding room.” Fluttershy whispered meekly.
“Ewww!” Rainbow squeaked, stepping back. She stepped inside, seeing that upon the wall were old photos of old-fashioned-looking mares with their tiny newborns.
“Awww, look at that!” she looked at the photos and cooed, “Oh, this one looks like you!”
“What!? Let me see!” Rainbow said, hurrying over to see the black and white photo of a pegasus mare holding her foal. “How can you tell? There’s no colour, and the foals all look the same to me.”
“Oh...um...not sure?” Fluttershy blushed, feeling just a bit silly for saying that now. She turned and saw a book on the ground. It was dusty and old, with the cover being bright pink. “Oh my!? What’s this!” she opened it to see pictures of her as a foal “it's...a photo album full of my baby pictures.”
“Okay...that’s just creepy,” Rainbow whispered, getting unnerved... “There might be some creepy stalker or something we should just leave.”
Fluttershy flipped through the pictures giggling at some. “Oh, you’re overreacting. It’s probably just fell from Cloudsdale or something.”
“Uh? I’m not a math pony, but I'm betting the chances of your baby pictures landing in this old place is like a million to one.” Rainbow responded, blinking as her voice sounded much higher in pitch. “M...my voice? It does sound weird.”
Fluttershy closed the book, standing up in a hurry. She soon saw she was shorter than before. “Yeah...maybe we gotta get out of here!”
They both turned and went back into the hallway, hurrying to the front door. The front door rattled as the two tried getting it open, but it wouldn’t budge. Rainbow tried bucking it next, but the doors held. Fluttershy was now getting nervous. “Okay...n-now I’m scared.”
Rainbow groaned then an idea hit her. “Hey! There are probably mice or rats here. Why don’t you talk to them and see if there’s another way out of here?”
Fluttershy looked about the room. “Uh...yeah, I hope so...maybe we should try to see if they have a kitchen or an attic.”
Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, I guess we just gotta keep opening doors and see. Maybe up the stairs?”
They both walked down the hall and up an old flight of stairs. Both mares were nervous upon seeing that the steps appeared to be getting bigger, probably from them getting smaller! They eventually made it to the top floor and went into another room. There was an old kitchen with the tiles cracked and covered in grim. There were old cracked foal bottles scattered around the room. But what surprised the mares most was that there were two fresh Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the table.
“R-rainbow, this might be a bad idea, but I'm really hungry,” Fluttershy said, rubbing her belly as it grumbled.
Rainbow’s belly grumbled as she rubbed it with a hoof. “Y..yeah...but obviously somepony is here. These are super fresh and smell so good.” she slowly moved over to the sandwiches with her head barely coming over the table, being as small as a ten-year-old foal. She sniffed the sandwiches. “I don’t smell poison.”
Fluttershy snapped, “how would you even know what poison smells like?”
“I don’t know!? But Daring Do books taught me that poison smells bad!” Rainbow whined like a school filly.
Fluttershy fluttered over and took a small piece from one of the sandwiches nibbling at it. “Hmmm...strawberry jelly and fresh peanut butter. Nothing tastes bad.”
Rainbow picked up one of the halves of the sandwich and booked a bite, meeping when jelly squirted out onto her fur. “Bleh, ugh! Now I’m sticky.”
Fluttershy giggled as she took a napkin off the table and wiped the jelly off her friend’s coat. “There, you’re always messy during lunchtime.”
“It’s not my fault! My mom always puts too much jell-wait. What am I saying?” Rainbow replied as she placed the sandwich down.
Fluttershy finished her sandwich and looked down at her now chubby body, which now resembled a school foal. She whimpered, “I...think that we might have regressed.”
“Oh no!” Rainbow whined, running around and looking at her rump and sighed, “Good I still have my cutie mark!”
Fluttershy looked over at her rump and shook it. “Still have mine! Alright, let's find a way out of here. I'm sure Twilight or Zecora can help us.”
“Right, come on!” Rainbow exclaimed as she ran down the hall, Fluttershy following close behind. They then came into a room full of old beds with rusty railing. “Ugh is where toddlers sleep?”Rainbow asked.
Fluttershy nodded, “yeah, seems like it….” They went to the back of the room and found an old bookshelf with the books inside all vibrantly coloured. Rainbow curiously took one out. “Oh wow! A Daring Do picture book!” She flipped through the pages and began reading.
Fluttershy looked through the books and found one with some cute bunnies on the cover. “Oh, the adventures of Peter Rabbit. These stories were so cute!” She started to read as well, but the longer the two school foals read, the more they struggled to pronounce words. Rainbow began to use her hoof and read out loud. Fluttershy kept skipping the harder-to-say words and mostly just admired the pictures. Rainbow eventually groaned, “Ugh, this book is too hard! What’s this word! P-pyr-a-mid. What is a pyra-m-dinghy!”
“I don’t know, Rainbow? Did Miss Cheerilee teach us shapes yet?” Fluttershy responded as she placed her book down and gasped upon seeing Rainbow was chubby as usual but much smaller. The vibrant filly’s cutie mark was also gone.
“Yeah! But I forgot some. Maybe I’ll ask her tomorrow at school,” Rainbow responded as she placed the book down.
Fluttershy rubbed her head.” wait..h-how old are we?”
Rainbow paused and scratched her mane. “I...um...I think I'm six?”
“Yeah, six sounds right,” Fluttershy mumbled as she stood and looked at her rump to see her cutie mark was also now gone. “Hmmm, did we have cutie marks?”
Rainbow paused as she tapped a hoof to her chin. “I thought we did? Mine was a rainbow or something like that. My name is Rainbow Dash, after all!”
Fluttershy nodded, “?Yeah, mine was..um..butterflies? Or were they bunnies? I dun know…”
Rainbow looked around and asked, “Uh, Fluttershy? Wh-what's going on, are we lost or something?”
“Maybe...we should try to find a big pony for help like Twilight! She's super smart!” Fluttershy responded, trying not to get nervous.
Rainbow got up and shouted, “Ten I’ll lead ta way! Follow me, I gonna be like Daring Do!” She ran off again, and Fluttershy followed her with a giggle. Suddenly, Rainbow then groaned as she placed her hooves over her groin. “Oh! Gotta go potty!”
Fluttershy gasped and looked around with a blush on her face. “Uh..R...Rainbow, this is an old place tey dun got bathrooms.”
“Ten what am I supposed to do!” Rainbow whined, “I gotta go!”
Fluttershy pointed back into the room. “Just pee in ta corner.”
“Ewww!” Rainbow whined and stomped her hooves. “Not gonna, tats gross!”
With the soft sound of a chime, the two turned to see that a plastic training potty had suddenly appeared with Daring Do printed on it. Fluttershy pointed at it. “See, just use tat.”
Rainbow shook her head. “No way! Tats a baby potty! I a big foal!”
Fluttershy sighed as she waddled over and plopped down on it. She did a quick tinkle, the potty suddenly lighting up as Daring Do’s voice exclaimed, “Good job, little adventurer!”
“Look, it’s all we got right now, so either use tis or go on the floor,” Fluttershy grumbled as she got off and returned to her friend. Rainbow sighed, seeing Fluttershy was right, and so went and plopped down on the seat. Seeing Fluttershy staring at her and snapped,
“Some privacy, please!”
Fluttershy turned her head and waited for her friend to finish tinkling, which lasted for a while.
“Wow, such a big foal! But remember, adventures should go potty more often!”
Rainbow blushed, getting off the training potty. “I would’ve gone sooner if we found a potty earlier.”
Fluttershy found a package of foal wipes that also had seemed to come out of nowhere. She took one of them with a faint blush. “Okay, let’s wipe ourselves ten wets get out of here.”
“Right, let’s get out of here tis place tinks we babies,” Rainbow grumbled reluctantly, taking a foal wipe.
As the two look around, they suddenly hear somepony singing a soothing tune from the end of the hall. Their heads swayed as they waddled toward the room and saw the nursery inside. It was massive. A huge play area took up one side, filled with all kinds of old foal toys. A few more old cribs were in the room, with a crumbling diaper changing table. A giant mirror stood in the center of the room, framed in dark oak.
Rainbow gave the mirror a long look and gasped, “member when Twily when to ta place with weird tings called hu-uh-hu-something.”
“Yeah? Tink so?” Fluttershy mumbled, calming herself by sucking on her hoof.
Rainbow pointed at it and continued, “Well tat ting might be why tis place tinks we babies! If we go through it, we might be big ponies again!”
Fluttershy blushed, ”I dun tink tats how tose mirrors work? But tat was a long time ago.”
Rainbow slapped Flutterhsy’s hoof. “Stop tat ya hoof is fill of germs!”
“Ya do it too!” The yellow pegasus snapped back and shoved Rainbow.
“Whatever, just follow me! We're gonna get out of here!” Rainbow took her friend by the hoof and led her to the mirror. But instead, a strange-looking floating green mare popped her head out of the mirror. “Hello, little ones.”
The two toddlers stood there, scared upon seeing the strange mare. Even in their regressed state of mind, they recognized it as a ghost! Rainbow whimpered as she stepped back, picking up a foam sword off the ground and taunted, “Get back!”
Fluttershy simply began to tear up and started to tinkle on the floor due to uncontrollable fear.
The ghost gave them a heartwarming smile and picked up Rainbow Dash into her hooves. The filly kicked and whined as she tried to smack the ghostly mare with the foam sword. However, her attempts kept going through her. The mare didn’t react but simply continued to smile. “Now, now, stop that fussing. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
She took the foam toy from Rainbow’s mouth and replicated it with a big blue pacifier. Rainbow whined and kicked, unable to do much as her body shrank even more. The pacifier was now feeling more soothing as she suckled on it. She then turned her head to Fluttershy on the ground and cried out, “Fluttershy, run!”
Fluttershy couldn’t run as she seemed to shrink further, just like her friend. The ghost sighed upon seeing the puddle. “This is why foals shouldn’t be running around without protection. I’m going to have to mop this place later.”
The ghost mare sent out some green clouds that wrapped around the yellow pegasus before being gently lifted into the cradle of the ghost’s other hoof. The strange phantom was now cradling the two helpless foals cooing gently. “Now come on! It’s way past your bedtime!” Without even a sound, she flew into the mirror with a sudden pop leaving the world of Equestria behind.