“The Sheep goes ‘Baa, Baa!’ And the Frog goes ‘Ribbit! Ribbit!’”

The audience of foals all giggled and laughed at the silly noises Silverstream made as she read to them from the children’s book. Their favourite time of day was Story Time after-all, and they especially loved when the young Hippogriff read to them. It didn’t matter what they were doing at the time, all it took was for Silverstream to hold up a story book for them to see and every foal in the room would be all ears in moments.

The sight of all the foals so captivated by her story telling filled Silverstream with joy. Originally, she had started volunteering at the Ponyville Daycare in order to earn school credit, but had discovered very quickly that she had a natural talent when it came to caring for young ponies. The staff had been awestruck when she had managed to soothe a crying foal to sleep in mere moments, and were equally as sad when her original volunteering week had ended. Silverstream had been unable to stay away though, so she had practically begged Headmare Twilight to be allowed to continue volunteering at the daycare.

Of course Twilight had said yes, and so Silverstream now regularity volunteered at the daycare two to three times a week, typically whenever she had a free day from her friendship studies or hanging out with her friends. Some of the staff had already offered her a job once she graduated, but to Silverstream, seeing the smiling faces on the foals was reward enough for her.

Eventually though, Story Time came to an end, and a quick glance at the sleepy faces of the foals around her told her it was almost Nap Time. As Silverstream set the book she had been reading aside, she noticed a pungent scent in the air, once that she had become used to after volunteering at the daycare for so long. “Uh! Smells like somepony needs a diapee change! Which one of you is it?”

Walking around the foals, Silverstream quickly checked the state of the foal’s diapers. Most of them were still clean, having been changed recently, and a few were wet enough that they would needed to be changed before being put down for their nap, but one in-particular was in dire need of a change.

“I spy with my little eye somepony in need of a change… and it’s you!” Scooping up one of the Earth Pony foals, a quick check revealed that Silverstream’s nose had been right. “Someone’s a very stinky pony!” She cooed at the filly, tickling just under their chin and eliciting a happy giggle.

“Let me handle this one, Silverstream,” one of the Daycare mares said as she and a few others approached to begin setting up for Nap Time.

“Thank you, but I think I’ll be able to handle this one myself,” Silverstream replied with a smile.

“Are you sure? You’ve already done so much for us, asking you to change diapers as well feels a bit unfair…”

“I’m sure!” Silverstream replied with her usual bubbly enthusiasm. “I’ll be right back after I take care of this smelly foal.”

With that, Silverstream walked over to one of the nearby changing stations and set the foal down onto the cushioned table. The foal was already beginning to fall asleep, so she barely put up a fuss as Silverstream went to work. True, changing used diapers wasn’t Silverstream’s favourite part about volunteering, but she enjoyed the feeling of closeness it caused as she cared for the young foal, making sure they were all nice and comfy for their nap.

Disposing of the old diaper in the nearby pail, it wasn’t long before SIlverstream had changed the foal once more into a nice, fresh diaper. Smiling down at the still half asleep foal, she gently picked her up and cradled her in her arm as she carried her over to the crib room.

As she approached, her ears perked up at the sound of low singing. As she entered the room, her eyes settled on one of the caregivers sitting in a rocking chair while feeding one of the foals a before bed bottle. The foal was the very image of content as they drank heartily from the bottle of warm milk, slipping further into dreamland as the caregiver sang to them.

“Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to lay your sleeping head… Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to go to bed…”

Silverstream was frozen in her tracks, utterly mesmerized as she watched the scene before her. As she stood there, unable to look away from such a carefree and loving moment between a caregiver and their charge, a strange feeling began to form in the pit of Silverstream’s stomach, one that made her feel… uneasy? She couldn’t quite describe it, but she just knew that something wasn’t right…

“There you are, Silverstream.”

Silverstream snapped out of her stupor at the sound of her own name, looking over to see another of the daycare staff approaching her. “I take it you didn’t have any trouble with this one?” The mare asked, looking down at the foal still cradled in Silverstream’s arm.

“N-No, they weren’t any trouble,” Silverstream muttered as she handed the foal over to the staff member, who carried the child over to one of the cots and tucked them in. The whole time Silverstream watched with that same feeling as before growing larger in the pit of her stomach. What is this feeling…? She wondered as she walked out of the room, still unable to shake the earlier scene of the one foal being bottle fed from her mind.

“Are you okay, Silverstream?” Another staff member asked as they walked up to her. “You look a little pale…”

“I’m… I’m fine, just a little hungry, I guess,” Silverstream said, forcing what she hoped was a reassuring smile onto her face.

“Well, all the foals will be asleep for a while, so now would be a good time to take a lunch break, if you want.”

“Yes, I think I’ll do that,” Silverstream replied as she walked off, making a beeline for the break room area. Some food was all she needed, and then the strange feeling in her tummy would surely go away.

***

That feeling did not end up going away. In fact, it persisted well into the next day. Silverstream found it difficult to focus on her notes in class, her mind continually drifting back to that moment in the daycare when she had walked in on the foal being fed from a bottle and sung a lullaby. Again and again it repeated on loop in her head, making the feeling in her stomach grow worse.

What was going on? She wondered. What were these strange feelings? Why couldn’t she get that image of the daycare staff and the foal out of her mind? What did it all mean?

“Yo! Equestria to Silverstream!”

“Huh?” The sound of Gallus snapping his talon in front of her face finally brought Silverstream back to reality. Looking around the table, she noticed that her friends were all staring at her. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“Thought we’d lost you there for a minute,” Gallus remarked as he propped his elbow up on the table. “We’re supposed to be studying here, and yet you’ve still got your head in the clouds.”

“S-sorry!” Silverstream muttered, picking up her textbook and using it to hide her blushing face. “What page were we on again?”

“Is friend alright?” Yona asked. “Friend seemed distracted in class before, and now again during study session.”

“I’m alright, Yona,” Silverstream said in return. “I’ve just been… a bit tired lately. That’s all.”

Gallus scoffed as he closed his textbook. “Probably from dealing with all those screaming rugrats down at the Ponyville Daycare. I still don’t know how you can even stomach dealing with so many foals all the time!”

“Hey! Don’t say that!” Silverstream squawked at Gallus. “I enjoy caring for all the foals at the daycare. They’re so cute and adorable!”

“Yeah, when they’re not drooling everywhere, or spitting up their food, or smelling like a dumpster.” Pinching his nose, Gallus added, “Just the idea of changing even one used diaper is making me want to hurl… Yuck!”

“Leave her alone, Gallus,” Sandbar interjected, frowning at the griffon across from him. “I’ve looked after my little sis before, so I can tell you it’s nowhere near as bad as your making it out to be. If Silverstream likes volunteering at the daycare, who are we to judge?”

“Besides, I bet you were no better when you were a hatchling,” Smoulder said with a toothy grin directed at Gallus. “You were probably a drooling, stinky mess too when you were their age!”

“Hey!”

“Plus, it’s good for her school record,” Ocellus added. “How many volunteer hours have you clocked in so far, hmmmm?”

“I… uh… well… the thing is…” Gallus stuttered as he felt the full force of his friends’s attention suddenly shift onto him. “H-hey! We should get back to studying, should’t we?!” Gallus said as he grabbed his textbook and buried his face in it to hide himself the many watching eyes. The table had a good laugh at Gallus’s expense before going back to studying.

While Silverstream was finally able to focus on her schoolwork, the strange thoughts and feelings still remained at the back of her mind the whole time. She tried thinking back to her childhood, but found that what little she could remember was muddied and distant, like it had never happened at all.

Upon this realization, the strange feeling in her stomach grew a little bit more.

Later that night, Silverstream was writing her weekly letter to her parents, like she normally did. She told them all about how her schoolwork was going, about the fun times she had with her friends, and anything interesting she could think to say. As she pondered what else to write, she thought back to earlier with her friends, causing that same nagging feeling to return once more. On a whim, Silverstream began to write.

Hey, what was I like as a child? Like when I was super young and still crawling around? The topic came up among my friends earlier and it made me think back to the days before…

Silverstream paused, unsure of how to word her next thought. Before the Storm King invaded our home. Before we were forced to flee Mount Aris and go into hiding underwater. Before we lived in constant fear, worried that some day the Storm King would find us again and finish what he had started.

... Before we started living in Seaquestria. I remember what Terramar was like when he was a baby, but what was I like? Sorry if this is super random (even for me!) but I was curious and figured I’d ask.

After writing a little bit more and signing it, Silverstream sealed the letter into an envelope and set it aside for now. She’d deliver it first thing in the morning, but a quick glance at the alarm clock on her nightstand told her that she had stayed up later than normal. Stifling back a yawn as if to reinforce the point, Silverstream shut off her desk lamp and crawled into bed for the night.

As Silverstream slept, her dreams were filled with images of infants of all species having fun and laughing in a joyous wonderland. During this, Silverstream’s hand drifted closer and closer to her face until it was close enough for her to unconsciously pop one of her talons in her mouth and begin to suck on it, smiling in her sleep as she did so.