Skyla trotted over to the twins, seeing they weren’t continuing their chase game. “Hungwy!” she said with a whine.

Pound gave Skyla a hug. “No problem.”

He went over to the diaper bag, pulling out some formula and a bottle. He read the label. “This looks simple enough. A little water, a little formula, mix it up, and bang! One bottle for the hungry filly.”

Pound went to the kitchen as Pumpkin kept Skyla calm. Following the instructions he mixed up the bottle, humming to himself.

When he returned to the living room he held up the bottle. “Here we go. One full bottle.”

Skyla let out a whimper. “Hungwy!” Her horn lit up.

The bottle flew out of Pound’s hoof and towards Skyla.

“Hey!” Pumpkin cried out as she saw the speed at which the bottle was heading towards them. She put her hoof in front of Skyla’s face, wincing at the impact as the bottle slammed into it.

“Are you alright, Pumpkin?” asked Pound.

Pumpkin shook her hoof. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.

“You have to be more careful, Skyla. You hurt me.”

Skyla was distracted for a moment. “Huwt?” She kissed Pumpkin’s hoof. “There! All bettah!”

Pumpkin couldn’t help letting out a laugh. She’d seen it before when they were chasing each other around, but Skyla was definitely copying the people in her life.

Pound grabbed the bottle off the floor, checking the nipple for dirt and wiping it off. “Well, I don’t know if kissies alone are gonna be enough for that hoof. I think I should feed her.”

“Okay,” said Pumpkin. Her hoof was still stinging a bit.

Pound sat down, pulling Skyla onto his lap. He put the bottle by her lips. “Okay, Skyla. Open up.”

Skyla eagerly complied, her eyes closing as she began to drink.

Pound smiled down at her. She was so adorable. He gently rocked back and forth.

Pumpkin stared at the pair, feeling something strange.

A few minutes later Skyla finished off her bottle, and Pound lifted her up over his shoulder, patting her back until she let out a little burp.

“Good girl, Skyla!” Pound said as he pulled her back and nuzzled her nose.

She nuzzled him back, looking content, before she let out a little yawn.

“Aww, looks like someone is a little tired after running around and eating.” He set her down into the crock of his front legs and began to rock her. “And here’s a little something special to help you go to dreamland.”

He cleared his throat before he began to sing. “Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to lay your sleepy head. Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to go to bed.”

As Pound continued singing Pumpkin began to feel worse, that feeling inside her intensifying.

When Skyla began to snore Pound lifted her up and gave her a little kiss. “Goodnight, little Skyla. Well, it’s the middle of the day, but let’s ignore that.

“Hey, Pumpkin? Can you go grab a blanket and pillow for Skyla?”

“Huh?” she replied. “Oh, um… sure.” She got up, heading upstairs. A minute later she returned, setting them on the floor in front of Pound.

Pound heard a deep sigh, and turned to look at his sister. Pumpkin had a forlorn look on her face as she stared at Skyla.

“What’s wrong, Pumpkin?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I was just thinking.”

He continued to rock Skyla as he asked, “Thinking about what?”

“I don’t know… it’s kinda hard to explain.”

Gently setting Skyla down on the blanket he said, “Try me.”

She rubbed one of her hooves in a small circle on the floor. “I guess… I was just thinking that it wasn’t too long ago that we were still babies.”

Pound’s eyebrow went up. “That was five years ago.”

“Not really. I’m not talking about age here. You’ve said the same thing yourself, you know, about how things have gotten so complicated ever since we started going to school.”

Pound moved Skyla a little so her head was on the center of the pillow. It took him a little while to respond. “Yeah, I guess so. But… what’s your point?”

“I guess… I mean…” She looked around, trying to think of the best way to explain herself. “Looking at you taking care of Skyla… it reminds me of a simpler time, when things were easier. Back then it was just the two of us, playing without care. Except for keeping our room clean or taking our dishes to the sink we didn’t have any responsibilities. We’d fight, sure, and we’d get in trouble, but it was always over quickly.

“Now, though, things are so difficult. Tree Leaf, Peppermint, Masky, Flurry… we’ve helped a lot of ponies and made some lifelong friends, but it feels like every single one took so much effort. It was very painful.

“A part of me just… misses that simpler time, you know. For just a little while I want to go back to that.”

Pound gave her a searching look. “So what are you saying? You want to be a baby again?”

Pumpkin blushed slightly, but she nodded. “I mean, our parents and Auntie Pinkie are out. It’s only us here. I know we can’t actually get rid of our responsibilities, but… I mean… maybe for like the next two hours or so I can pretend like it’s like it used to be.”

She let out a sigh. “Even then, it’s not going to be how I want. I just want to be taken care of, you know? Get the back rubs and the lullabies and just not care about anything, but it feels too embarrassing to ask our parents for something like that.”

Pound just stared at her for a little while.

Pumpkin wondered if he was going to make fun of her.

Pound finally got a devious grin on his features. “Well… alright, then, Baby Cake. If you want to be a baby again then by all means. I’ll play along, ‘daughter,’ but if you’re going to do it you’re doing it properly.”

Pumpkin’s head tilted, an eyebrow going up as Pound went towards the bag with Skyla’s supplies in it. “What does that mean?”

Pound pulled something out of the bag, then before she could react he had shoved her to the ground.

“Hey!” she complained. “Whoa!” she said right after as Pound lifted her back legs. She felt something going up her legs. “What are you doing?” After a few more seconds he released her, and Pumpkin looked down to see he had put a diaper on her.

“Oh, no way!” Her face was now beet red. “I’m not wearing that!”

Pound got in her face, his grin wide. “You’re the one who said you wanted to be a baby again, so you need a diaper.”

“Why? So you can tell everyone in school? Or take a picture so you can blackmail me?”

The devious look on Pound’s face faded. “Oh, come on! You know me better than that.” Pumpkin just gave him a flat look.

Pound rolled his eyes. “Give me a break. We’re siblings, which means whatever affects one of us affects the other. You think I want to be known as the colt whose school-age sister was wearing a diaper? It would be just as humiliating for me as it would be for you.”

Pumpkin considered that, and thought it sounded plausible, but she still wasn’t sure.

Pound let out a sigh, shaking his head. “Fine.” He moved his hooves in the usual way. “I Pinkie Promise I won’t tell anyone at school about this. Now can I just get to enjoy this? You’re ruining the hilarity.”

That was that. If Pound had Pinkie Promised that meant she was safe. Even so, the idea of wearing a diaper wasn’t too appealing, but it was for the game. “Fine.”

“Finally!” Pound said. His annoyance faded as Pumpkin stood up and he began chuckling to himself.

Pumpkin tried to ignore him, but she couldn’t help but blush a bit.

Pound had a big grin on his face. He had no intentions of publically humiliating Pumpkin for this, but he thought he’d personally enjoy this sight for a long time.

Getting his merriment under control he said, “Well?”

Pumpkin pulled her eyes from her diapered rear. “Huh?”

“You’re a baby now, right? I mean, that’s what all this was for, right? So act like a baby.”

Pumpkin sucked on her cheek. She was starting to regret this. With Pound’s Pinkie Promise she knew he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone about this, but from his mocking grin she had a feeling he wasn’t going to let her live this down regardless.

But wasn’t that the point? To let go of everything for a little while? If she didn’t follow through then she had put herself through this embarrassment for nothing. She had gone this far, she might as well take it all the way.

She began crawling on the floor, hoping that this wasn’t going to go horribly.

“Aww, isn’t that cute?” said Pound, walking up to Pumpkin and rubbing her head. “You’re just precious.”

Pumpkin resisted the urge to bite him. She forced a smile, copying Skyla as she said, “Hungwy!”

“You too?” He let out a sigh. “And you just ate a little while ago. You’re gonna get fat. Well, fat-TER.” He laughed at himself until Pumpkin’s horn lit up, knocking him onto his back.

“Oh, no!” she said sarcastically, still trying to keep her baby voice. “Magic surge. Oops.”

Pound stood up, a smug look on his face. “Magic surge, my flank.” He slowly shook his head. “Maybe the naughty baby needs a spanking to remind her how to behave.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, her horn lighting up as she hovered in the air. “If you can catch me.”

Pound unfurled his wings. “Have you forgotten? I can fly now.” He took off, charging toward her as Pumpkin’s horn stopped glowing and she landed on the ground.

As Pound flew over her she took off toward the kitchen, laughing.

“Get back here!” Pound called out, chasing after her as Pumpkin went through the sliding doors.

He avoided the doors entirely, flying over them. He looked back and forth, not seeing any sign of his sister. “Hmm… now where could the naughty baby be?”

He heard the creaking of a cabinet door. “Aha!” He flew towards it, opening it only to find some pots and pans.

On the other side of the room he heard another door move, and raced towards it, only to once again see no sign of his sister. It occurred to him that he was being played for a fool. She was using her magic to move the cabinets.

He sucked on his cheek for a few moments before getting an idea. “Oh, forget it!” he said loudly, flying towards the sliding doors and bucking them open. He quickly flew to the top of the fridge, landing soundlessly.

He only had to wait a short while before another cabinet opened, and Pumpkin came out, laughing victoriously to herself.

Pound smirked as he began to flap his wings and hovered until he was in a good position behind her, then he descended.

“Got you!” Pound called out as he grabbed his sister, making her let out a scream.

His triumph didn’t last. He wasn’t used to flying with the weight of an extra pony on him, and he quickly fell to the ground, both of them tumbling over and over a few times.

Both of them were feeling a little sore from the impact. It only got worse for Pound when Pumpkin gave him a hard smack.

“Pound, you dummyhead!” she said angrily. “What did you do that for?”

Pound wiped his cheek. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t think it would be so hard to fly with another pony.” Despite the pain he couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s been forever since you called me dummyhead. You’re really getting that baby mindset going, huh?”

Pumpkin glared at him.

“Alright, alright!” He looked back towards the kitchen. “Why don’t I get you some nice chocolate chip cookies and milk?”

“Hmph! Fine!” She stomped off to a kitchen seat.

“Mmm. She’s pretty mad.” Unfurling his wings again he went to one of the upper cabinets to grab a plate and an empty glass. Not for the first time he was glad he could fly. It just made doing things so much easier.

Once he had everything ready he set it on the table in front of Pumpkin, who began digging in silently.

After a few cookies Pound said, “I’m sorry, Pumpkin. I guess I just wasn’t thinking. I’m still getting used to this. I didn’t think it would be so difficult to stay airborne holding another pony.”

Pumpkin didn’t respond. He waited for a little while until it became obvious she had no intention of speaking, then he left the kitchen to return to the living room.

He sat down in front of Skyla, seeing her still sound asleep. He let out a sigh as he gently ran a hoof through her mane. “Babies have it so easy, don’t they?”

Pound got a strange look on his face, much like Pumpkin did earlier. He felt like he was starting to understand what Pumpkin had been talking about. He had gone through a lot of stress when he first started school. He had to endure constant teasing from bullies about the fact he was the worst in his class. Then he got into that big fight with Pumpkin and felt like he never wanted to go back to school again.

He had been the one who felt like he had lost the most. He had felt so outclassed by his sister, when earlier he had been the leader.

Now Pumpkin was mad at him for accidentally hurting her. No one would stay mad at a baby for making a mistake like that. It wasn’t like they could help what they did.

A few minutes later Pumpkin returned to the living room too. She was in a better mood now.

She could see he looked pretty bummed out. “Hey, you big dummyhead,” she said cheerfully. “I guess I forgive you. I mean, it’s not like you can help being stupid.”

He knew she was joking with him, and that made him feel a little better.

“Hey, Pumpkin?” he said.

“What’s up?”

“I… well, I, um…” He blushed slightly. “I guess I want to play too.”

Pumpkin blinked, a little surprised. “Really?”

He nodded. “It would be fun to go back in time for a little bit.”

“Aw, Pound.” She gave him a hug. “I’m really glad to hear that.”

“You are? Why?”

Pumpkin’s horn started glowing, a diaper coming out of the diaper bag. Much like he had done to her she pushed him onto his back as she grinned down at him, sliding the diaper up his legs. “Oh, I feel SO much better now.”

“Hey!” Pound complained.

Pumpkin put her face right in front of his, looking at him smugly. “Hey, if you’re going to pretend to be a baby then you’re doing it properly.”

Pound got a sour look on his face as she repeated his words from before. He crossed his front legs. “You better watch out or I’ll mess myself. How’s THAT for doing it properly?”

Pumpkin backed up in disgust, her tongue sticking out her mouth as she fought not to gag. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

Pound sat up. “Duh! That would be completely gross. I’m not THAT interested in playing the part of a baby.”

A few seconds passed, then Pound said, “Well, now what? If we’re both babies who is supposed to be the parent here?”

“Why do we need a parent? We’re babies, remember? We do whatever we want without thinking of the consequences.”

“Well, I don’t mind getting a little wild and crazy, but I think we need to agree that Skyla must come first.”

Pumpkin nodded. “If anything bad happened to Skyla then Flurry would probably kill us.”

“Yeah.” After a few seconds Pound chuckled a bit. “You look ridiculous.”

Pumpkin giggled in return. “Same to you.”

They both began to laugh harder.

Pound wiped a tear from his eye. “So now what? I don’t feel like making a huge mess because we’re gonna have to clean it up anyway and we don’t know when Mom and Dad are gonna be back.”

Pumpkin scratched her head. “I get what you mean. I started all this because I wanted to get away from our responsibilities for a little while, but most of the stuff I can think of would be harmful or make a mess. And we definitely don’t want either of those if we ever want a chance of foalsitting Skyla again.”

Pound tapped a hoof. “This would be easier if there was someone around to annoy. What’s the point of doing bad things if there’s no one around to get mad for it?”

“Well… babies don’t really do ‘bad’ things. They just don’t know any better yet. That’s why they can’t get in trouble for anything.”

“I guess…” Pound slowly moved his head around. “Well, let’s just do whatever comes to mind. We’re thinking about it too much. Babies don’t really think. They just do stuff.”

They began chasing each other around, doing baby talk, but it didn’t take long before Pound came to a stop, causing Pumpkin to do the same.

“What’s wrong, Pound?”

He shrugged. “This isn’t as much fun as I thought it would be. I mean, I want to let go and just not care, but I can’t.”

“Hmm…” Pumpkin walked over to the diaper bag and began rummaging through it. “Yeah, I get what you’re saying. It’s just not as much fun if both of us are pretending to be babies.”

She stood up, her horn glowing as she turned back to him. “So I got a solution for that problem.”

“And what’s that?” he asked. “Mmph!” Pound backed up as something suddenly went into his mouth. He looked down and saw that Pumpkin had levitated a pacifier over to him.

“There you go! A good way to settle down the whining baby.”

Pound gave her a dirty look as she laughed at him.

The expression on his face only made Pumpkin laugh harder.

Pound tried to pull the pacifier out of his mouth, but Pumpkin’s magic held it in place.

“Aww, wook at da widdle baby with his widdle pacifier.”

Pound growled.

“Uh-oh! Da baby is getting mad. I guess that pacifier’s not working too well. Maybe the grumpy baby needs a nap.”

As Pumpkin’s head went back with her laughter Pound tackled her to the ground. When Pumpkin’s magic faded he spat the pacifier at her, hitting her on the head. “Is it still funny now?” he asked fiercely.

Pumpkin returned his angry look. “You sure you want to do this?”

Pound got his face right in hers so their forehead’s touched. “You bet, coward.”

“Coward?” she asked, confused despite her annoyance.

“All you unicorns are stinking cowards. Us pegasi and earth ponies have to use our own strength to fight, but all you do is light up your stupid horn because you don’t have the guts to fight yourself.”

Pumpkin met his stare for a few moments before she suddenly lifted her back hooves and flipped him off of her.

He landed on his back, quickly standing up as they once more glared at each other.

Pumpkin’s horn lit up, pulling him closer until their foreheads touched again. “You talk like I need magic to beat a loser like you. So have it you way. No magic it is.”

Pound got a smug look on his face. “You just lost.”

Pumpkin got into a ready stance. “Bring it on. Mom and Dad aren’t here to save you today.”

The pair began to wrestle, both of them trying to get up top.

Pound growled as he pulled his sister to the ground, both of them rolling around.

Eventually Pound got the upper hand, sitting on top of Pumpkin as she lay on her stomach, pulling on her front legs painfully with his own.

Pound let out a victory laugh. “Come on, Pumpkin! Let’s see that magic of yours. You know there’s no other way to beat me.”

Pumpkin let out a cry of pain as Pound gave another yank to her legs. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of surrendering or using her magic, but in the position she was in she didn’t have any good leverage.

“Give up!”

She refused. After another bit of pain as he pulled on her again she got an idea. She tilted her head, scraping her horn against his leg. It wasn’t sharp, so it didn’t cut him, but it did hurt enough that he released her.

With one leg free she pushed off and turned, knocking Pound onto his back again. The lingering pain from his rough treatment of her legs made her lose restraint, and she socked him one.

Pound rubbed his cheek for a moment, but then the pain only added fuel to his fire.

Now it was just a straight-up fight. Both of them grunted and yelled and cursed as they strove for dominance.

After a minute they both became aware of a rumbling on the floor, though at first they paid it no mind.

That quickly changed as a scream came from nearby. “BE QUIET!”

Turning to look their eyes went wide as Skyla began flying in the air in a sphere of magic, lightning coming off of it and her eye’s pure white. Her growl of frustration sounded magically amplified, echoing like there were two of her.

The pair gulped as they realized their fight had woken Skyla from her nap, and she clearly wasn’t happy about that.

Author's Notes:

Well, this ain't good. Way back during Skyla's first appearance Shining Armor did talk about not wanting to wake Skyla from a nap because of alicorn temper tantrums.