The twins were mortified. Their parents had just walked in on them looking like babies and being rocked to sleep by Skyla.

Carrot began laughing as Cup shook her head. “I guess the baby really is in charge here,” said Cup.

“Which one?” asked Carrot, making both of them laugh.

Skyla stopped her singing as she set Pound and Pumpkin onto the pillow, saying, “Nigh-nigh, Pound. Nigh-nigh, Pumpkin.”

The twins jumped up, Pumpkin’s horn glowing as she tried to covertly remove her and Pound’s diapers.

Carrot smirked. “Y’know, Pumpkin, that doesn’t help much when you still have the pacifier in your mouth.”

Pumpkin blushed red hot as she spat it out. She felt like she was going to die of embarrassment.

“Well,” said Cup, “it sure seems like you found a way to entertain yourselves while we were gone, although I thought I left two kindergartners in charge of a baby, not two other babies.”

Neither of them answered her, too humiliated to speak.

Pound let out a groan, covering his face with a hoof.

Skyla began to grow angry. She didn’t quite understand what was going on, but she did understand that the twins were getting upset.

She put a hoof to her mouth. “Shhh! You makin’ too much noise.”

That got everyone looking toward Skyla.

Pound and Pumpkin let out a yelp as they were placed back on the floor, the blanket following. “Is nap time. Have’ta go seep.”

“Skyla,” started Cup, but she wasn’t able to get out any more.

“SHHHHHHHH!” she said, louder. “You is gon’ wake dem up. They go seep now!”

Pound sat up, his face still burning like the sun. “Skyla, I don’t feel tired anymore.”

“Me, neither,” said Pumpkin, sitting up as well. “I can’t sleep now.”

Skyla’s eyes widened and her mouth hung open for a few moments. Then her eyes narrowed as she glared at Cup and Carrot. “Now wook what you did! When pony go seep they need QUIET! You did a bad!”

Skyla’s horn began glowing, and Cup and Carrot were lifted into the air.

“Hey!” said Pound, uncertain of what she was going to do.

But their panic was unfounded, as Skyla simply put their parents in a corner like she had done to them. “You do bad! Now you sit in da cornah and tink about what you did!”

The twins began to laugh a little. They still felt embarrassed beyond belief, but seeing Skyla be the disciplinarian towards their parents did take the sting out just a bit.

Cup chortled to herself. “You aren’t really expecting us to let a baby tell us what to do, are you?”

Pound rubbed the back of his head with a hoof. “Well, Skyla almost had a meltdown earlier when we woke her from her nap. She’s been pretty cranky ever since. I wouldn’t anger her.”

Carrot playfully rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Well, you two get back to your nap and your diapers, then. We’ll be here.”

The twins both groaned. Pumpkin had thought it was bad enough when just Pound knew about this.

They flopped to the ground, letting out sighs.

Skyla saw the miserable looks on their faces, and she started feeling sad. She turned her head, lifting up her stuffed dog and bringing it over to her. She hugged it to her, hesitating for a few moments, before she held it out to them.

“Is Woof Woof. You hug. Make you feel bettah.”

A hint of a smile crossed Pound’s mouth for a moment. Skyla didn’t understand the cause of their distress, but she was still trying to cheer them up. It quickly faded. He might have taken her “Woof Woof” if only to humor her, but he didn’t want to give their parents any more reasons to mock them.

Pumpkin was feeling much the same. She rubbed Skyla’s head. “Thank you, Skyla, but Woof Woof is your toy. You keep her.”

Skyla frowned as she hugged Woof Woof to her.

After a minute Cup asked, “Have we been punished enough, Skyla?”

The foal looked over, distracted by the twin’s sadness. “Say sorry.”

Cup and Carrot went over by the twins. “So sorry we woke you,” Cup said in a humorous voice.

“I just feel terrible,” said Carrot in the same tone.

The twins were so subdued that neither of them had it in them to keep teasing them.

Cup gave Pound a kiss on the forehead. “We’ll let you get back to your business.”

The pair went upstairs.

Pound and Pumpkin played with Skyla for the next half hour, but their hearts weren’t in it anymore. They put on a brave face, acting cheery on the outside for her sake, but on the inside they felt terrible.

It was a relief when Twilight, Cadance, and Shining came back earlier than they expected.

“Hello!” Cadance said when Pound opened the door.

Skyla’s head whipped around at the sound of her mother’s voice. “MAMA!” she said happily, her horn glowing as she zoomed toward her.

Cadance pulled on her with her own magic to reduce her speed so the foal didn’t knock her over. She held Skyla to her, kissing her forehead. “Hello, Skyla,” she said lovingly. “Did you have fun?”

Skyla gave a big nod. “Uh-huh! Big fun! Run ‘round. Go fast.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Cup peeked down the bottom of the stairs. “Did someone knock?”

Twilight called up. “Hey, there! We’re back.”

“Hello, Princess!” She walked down the stairs. “How was your day?”

“Just great.” She grinned widely. “It’s always lovely to spend time with my brother and the world’s best foalsitter.”

Carrot left his room and came down the stairs too.

Shining took his daughter from Cadance, nuzzling her nose. “Hello there, my beautiful Skyla.”

Skyla giggled as she nuzzled him back. “Daddy!” she said happily.

“So did everything go well?” asked Cadance, looking down at the twins.

“Just fine,” said Carrot. “These two really know how to get into the mindset of a foal.”

Cup snorted, putting a hoof to her mouth.

The twins faces went red, both of them silently praying their parents weren’t about to spill the scene they had walked in on. To their relief their father didn’t continue, so they thought they might be safe.

Cadance gave them a questioning look, feeling like she was missing something. “Well, Skyla seems perfectly fine and happy, so it seems you did a great job.”

“No,” said Pound, hanging his head. “We were terrible foalsitters.”

“Come on,” said Twilight. “I doubt it was that bad. The house is in one piece.”

Pumpkin shook her head. “That’s only because we got lucky. We were supposed to be responsible and mature, and we screwed it up royally.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Shining.

“We were too busy playing to pay attention to our parents, so we were left alone for a few hours when they each left the house to do some stuff.”

“What?” asked Cadance, her eyes going wide.

Pound sighed. “We were supposed to tell Dad that Mom had left, but we didn’t even realize it until a few minutes later, and by that point it was too late.”

Pumpkin continued, “And Skyla almost went on a rampage when we woke her from a nap because we were annoying each other and fighting.”

“Come on,” said Shining. “Do you really think you’re the only ones that have woken her up from a nap? There’s no need to beat yourself up over that.”

Cadance flipped through the magic notebook. “Did we miss your message?”

Pumpkin shook her head. “There wasn’t any message. Skyla was so happy and fun that we didn’t think she would be any trouble, even though Mom warned us about the things we did when we were babies.”

“I left the notebook upstairs in our room,” said Pound. “And with Skyla looking like she was going to go berserk we were both too afraid to move.”

Cadance did a quick sweep of the living room. “From what I can tell Skyla didn’t cause any damage to the store.”

Pumpkin shrugged. “Pound remembered a stuffed animal in the diaper bag, and I pulled it out and did a silly voice with it. It calmed her down before she could destroy anything. She didn’t want to go back to sleep so we gave her rides until she cheered up.”

“So what’s the problem?” asked Twilight. “You were left alone, but you thought on your hooves and stopped a disaster before it happened. It sure seems you made the best of a bad situation. I don’t know how many times I have to remind you, but no one is perfect, especially not me.”

“Twily is right,” said Shining. “I’d never call myself a perfect parent. I remember a time when Cadance had just gotten Skyla to sleep, and I came in excited and loud. Cadance got pretty mad at that. These things happen.”

Cadance turned Skyla to them. “Skyla said she had a lot of fun with both of you. She clearly thinks you did a good job, despite your mistakes.”

Pound bowed. In a subdued voice he said, “Thank you for your words, but it doesn’t make me feel better. What happened with Skyla isn’t even the real issue.”

Pumpkin bowed too. “Yeah, that has little to do with what we’re feeling.”

“So what is the issue then?” asked Twilight curiously.

Getting back to an upright position neither of them answered the question. “Goodbye, everyone,” said Pound, turning towards the stairs and heading toward them.

“Goodbye,” said Pumpkin, following him. “Thanks for letting us watch Skyla.”

“Hey!” said Twilight. “Hold on now. If there’s a problem you have let’s work on it together.”

Pound stopped and shook his head. “But you can’t help us. This isn’t a problem you can fix.”

Pumpkin stopped as well. “What was it you said to Crystal? That there are problems you can’t solve because you’re not the right person for the job?”

“Yes,” said Twilight. “I said that. But even if I can’t solve it myself I might be able to direct you to someone that could.”

“But they’re already here,” said Pumpkin. “And we’re not sure we want to talk to them right now.”

Cup and Carrot glanced at each other, guilt upon their faces.

“So that’s it,” said Pound. “We’ve done our job, so we’re going.”

As the twins began to walk again Skyla pulled out of her father’s grip and flew in front of them holding Woof Woof.

She lifted it up in her magic. “Why so sad?” she said in a silly voice, making it dance. “Smile, smile, smile!”

The pair stared at her. Even in the midst of her breakdown earlier she still remembered Pumpkin’s words enough to copy them once again.

Both of them sat down, hugging Skyla. It did make them feel a little better.

Skyla smiled as she hugged them back.

When they released her they had small smiles on their faces. “Thank you, Skyla,” said Pumpkin. “We needed that.”

“Thank you,” said Pound, rubbing her head.

Seeing them smiling made Skyla happy. She waved to them. “Bye, Poun’. Bye, Punkin’.”

They waved back. “Goodbye, Skyla,” they replied as she ran back to her mother.

With that out of the way they continued where they left off, going upstairs to their rooms.

When they were gone Twilight turned to Cup and Carrot. “So what’s going on? Going by their words it seems like they have an issue with you that needs to be settled.”

Cadance had a thoughtful look on her face. “I noticed that when you mentioned the twins being good at getting into the mind of a foal that Cup laughed and the two of them looked uncomfortable. I thought it was odd, but now I’m thinking it has something to do with this.”

Cup sighed. "Well, me and Carrot both came back at the same time, and when we walked in Pound and Pumpkin were…” She stopped. After a few moments she said, “Well, I don’t want to say what it was, but they were in an embarrassing position. It was so unexpected we couldn’t help but laugh at it. It seems they’re taking it harder than we thought.”

“So they’re feeling a bit humiliated?” said Twilight.

“It seems that way,” said Carrot.

Twilight closed her eyes for a few seconds. When she opened them she said, “As Pound and Pumpkin said it doesn’t seem I have any role to play here. This seems like the sort of thing that needs to be sorted out between the four of you, so we should go and let you take care of that.”

“Right,” said Cup with a nod.

“Good luck,” said Shining. “And thank you again for looking after our daughter.”

“You’re welcome,” said Carrot. “Farewell.”

Once the four of them left Cup and Carrot began to walk up the stairs towards their children’s rooms.

Author's Notes:

Sad children.

Hopefully things get patched up in the finale.