The Finer Mechanics of Magic-Based Babying

"And... that's it! Perfect!"

Twilight Sparkle cheered internally as she released her magical grip, and slowly backed away from the focusing crystal, careful not to make any sudden movements. She couldn't afford to. Any unnecessary vibrations from the surrounding area would easily throw off the entire experiment. The resulting mess would be catastrophic; the clean-up would take a day or two, at least.

Thank goodness Pinkie was busy over at Sugercube Corner. Nice and far away.

This was, thankfully, the last crystal of many she had to painstakingly tune and place, over the course of many hours. The main room of her castle was now absolutely littered with the things. They were all arranged into a wide circle, with each one surrounded by their own private circle of quartz dust. Each of those circles had a line of dust leading to the centre of the overall pattern. In the middle of it all, right on top of where twenty-odd lines intersected, sat a vastly larger crystal, which pulsated with a dim pink light every few seconds.

Bringing up a clipboard and ticking the last prerequisite off of her list with a feathered quill, Twilight sighed, brushing an errant lock of mane out of her face. She was finally done setting up. Weeks upon weeks of research, study and practice were finally about to bear fruit. She took a moment of reprieve, delighting in the rare silence hanging in the room. Spike was out helping Rarity with her dressmaking, and the rest of her friends were similarly busy. They wouldn't be bothering her for the rest of the afternoon, at least.

She set the clipboard and quill down on a nearby chest, and carefully trotted up to the arranged summoning glyph. She then took a deep breath, calming the beating of her heart, before pulling the spell structure into her mind, and flared her horn.

Magic like this had so, so much potential, and Twilight simply wouldn't squander it by bringing anything other than 100% of her concentration. Even emotions were a factor. If she were in a foul mood, she wouldn't be risking testing such a complex spell. Negative emotions only poisoned magic. Tainted it, even, transforming it into something darker. Combining incredibly delicate spell-craft and dark magic could only lead to disastrous results. Twilight shuddered at the thought of it.

The spell itself was simple enough. It was basically a complete rework of Luna's energy-being summoning spell, with a few extra adjustments and features. The whole negative-emotion amplifier aspect of the spell was the very first thing that required a change. Instead, the spell promoted positive feelings in the form of an aura around the construct. Some advice from her sister-in-law, Cadance, helped here.

The rest of Luna's spell was just stripped down to its core mechanics, overly simplified, and re-evaluated. For instance, when the construct was first created, it would be given a direct mind-link to its summoner. This enabled the construct to draw from the caster's imagination and desires, without the need for complete sentience. The construct was strictly limited to do only what the summoner wanted of them. And even then, the instructions had to pass through a multitude of conditions and fail-safes before the task could be completed.

It was also designed with self-sufficiency in mind. The construct sustained itself by tethering to the palace's magical energy, which was never in short supply. All that was really required of the user was the first stream of magic to summon the construct. And even then, the large amount of focusing crystals managed the brunt of the workload, so that almost any unicorn could easily cast the spell.

All in all, it was an extraordinarily fine piece of spell work, if she did say so herself.

To recap, this spell could be used to instantly call a temporary servant. All the summoner would have to do is power a spell, which carried details of what the summoner wanted from the servant, and simply direct it at the larger crystal. The servant would, in theory, be able to do odd jobs around the house, walk the dog, or even just cuddle with the pony, if they so desired.

Twilight grinned, briefly entertaining the thought of snuggling with a magical being, then shook her head and quickly regained her focus.

With a determined glint in her eyes, Twilight directed the charged spell towards the crystal in the centre. As soon as the spell connected, the crystal immediately began to buzz, the light pulsing from its polished surface intensifying and darkening to more of a royal purple colour. Before Twilight could take note of the interesting reaction, multiple beams of light shot forth from the crystal, colliding with the surrounding smaller focusing crystals.

The air thickened as a reaction to the large amount of concentrated magic. Twilight could feel the room getting much warmer, and so brought up a hoof to wipe her brow of perspiration.

The casting continued as normal, when Twilight experienced a small, uncomfortable tug at the base of her horn, but she paid no lasting heed to it, chalking it up to being a random side effect of the spell. She shrugged it off, and changed her posture so that her horn was directly pointed at the light show. As the last threads of the spell began to weave together, all the crystals around the room slowly rose from the ground, glowing with that same purple. Twilight paused, and after steadying herself and taking a deep breath, she put a powerful surge of magic into the spell.

A simple command was mentally carried across with the burst of magic. The instructions for the construct to follow. They were simple and slightly vague, suitable enough for the first test run. 'Help me.'

There was a notably larger buzz that made Twilight's ears perk up.

Then, everything went silent.

"Umm..." Twilight ventured curiously, raising her head. "Was that... Was that supposed to happen? I don't think that's supposed to happen," she admitted to herself quietly. Her face was mixed between confusion and anticipation. She stared, eyes narrowed, at the larger crystal.

The buzzing had stopped, leaving the crystal to just sit there, hovering in mid-air.

A few moments passed.

"So, uh..."

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light. Twilight's eyes widened in surprise as she took a few steps back. Unfortunately, she somehow managed to trip over the nearby chest and fall to the ground, lightly bonking her head off of its lid. She could only see the blurry image of a few small tendrils protruding out from the summoning crystal, before everything went dark.

"Come on, sweetie. It's time to wake up."

"Hmm..." Twilight groaned in response. She shifted in her sleep, shrugging off the hoof on her shoulder. Her left ear flicked in irritation at the interruption to her peaceful slumber. "No... five more minutes, Cadance... sleepy..."

A muffled giggle. "I know you are, hun, but nap time is over now. Don't you want some dinner~?"

The alicorn huffed, rolling over to her other side. Whatever she was laying on felt strangely cold. And dusty. And not at all like her nice warm bed. Her tail swished around, trying to feel for a comforter or anything familiar.

"Sweetie pie, come along. You can nap some more later."

Inconsistencies were beginning to add up as Twilight awoke slowly, blinking, eyes adjusting to the dim light. From what she could make out, the crystals and dust from earlier were now neatly swept into a corner by the bin, and everything else swiftly tidied away. Her clipboard and notes sat neatly in a pile on the desk.

Then she noticed her. Or it. The vague shape of a pony close by, crouched, trying to meet Twilight's gaze. She looked very purple. From her mane to her eyes. Everything was purple. And translucent? What?

"There you are! Good morning, pumpkin! Have a nice rest?" The being chimed, in a way that didn't use her mouth. Not that she had one to begin with.

"W-what? Who are you!?" She demanded, rising to her hooves. The purple thing did the same, their eyes scanning over one another.

Now that she could get a better look at it, she could see that this being was obviously her creation. A successful magical construct summoning! It looked mostly how she suspected it would; a being of pure energy, in the shape of a pony. Appearance wise, it had more in likeness to a crystal pony. Or hard candy. Flowing ethereal wisps made up its mane and tail, moving as if on an invisible breeze. Honestly, it was hard for Twilight to wrap her head around it.

"Don't worry about that now, sweetie. Why don't- Oh! Look at you! You're all dusty! Here, let me get that~"

Before Twilight could react, the construct trotted towards her, raising a hoof to brush off the splotches of white dust from the side she had been laying on. Looking down, she quickly noticed that as the hoof interacted with her coat and wing, the dust seemed to just vanish, leaving behind a faint tingly feeling. Probably static.

Twilight Sparkle stared in wonderment. A million thoughts were dancing around in her head, and she was experiencing a myriad of emotions. Why didn't her head still hurt from bumping it earlier? How long was she out for? Did the summon actually work? No issues at all? What did she do now?

Why did it insist on baby-talking her in Cadance's voice?

It was only when the being tried to casually lift Twilight's wing and clean underneath that it spooked her out of her thoughts, so she took a few steps back to discuss it.

"Okay, wait just a moment, please. I need to ask you a few questions. No touching." She commanded, shuffling her wings self-consciously.

It nodded, ceasing the coddling and adjusting its posture to a more respectful one.

"Good, good. First, uh... Hello! My name is Twilight Sparkle. I am the one who summoned you, which means you must obey me. Do you, um, understand?" She spoke clearly and loudly, in much the same way Celestia would address a guard. Her commanding tone was, of course, betrayed by the fact that her wings and hooves were fidgeting awkwardly.

"Yes, Twilight. My purpose is to serve you for as long as you have need of me, to the best of my ability." It read off its predetermined response in a bored yet mirthful tone, rolling its eyes. It waited a few moments, and a cheeky smile spread across its muzzle. "Cutie~"

A warmth blossomed on her cheeks, and she fidgeted a bit more. "S-second! Why are you addressing me like that? I don't remember including that in the spell."

It giggled again, nodding. "During my summoning, you allowed me a glimpse into your mind. As you created me, you let me see how you wanted me to look and sound. You had a vague idea of how a magical servant would act, based on past experiences of ponies doting on you. Your foal sitter was the most recent example."

The frank answer stunned Twilight, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly. The room fell silent as the Princess of Friendship tried to process it.

"So you created me to take care of you! To help you explore this side of yourself!"

"I-I don't...! Cadance isn't-"

"Plus, I know you enjoy it, little one. I think we both know about all the cute things you have hidden under your bed~" The teasing smirk evolved into an almost predatory grin, delighting in Twilight's flustered gasp, and how her wings flapped in alarm.

Twilight briefly entertained the thought of simply cancelling this experiment now, packing away everything, and never speaking of this again. Her face burned, and her hooves shook. Thankfully, this wasn't a real pony. It was just a part of her mind, personified. Otherwise, she'd be doing a very good job of imitating Gummy, and then promptly dying of embarrassment.

She bit down hard on her lip. "Y-you! That's not...! I, ugh! Fine! You're right." She confessed, hanging her head and closing her eyes. Her ears splayed, her lavender tail tucked tightly between her legs. Surprisingly, she felt less shame than she thought she would. Instead, it felt as though she was finally coming to terms with what she wanted.

She felt a hoof gently lift her chin, and as her eyes met with a caring gaze, she felt all the building anxiety melt away. Even though she thought she could be panicking or crying, she was just overcome with a serene calmness. For once, when confronting herself about this fetish (literally), she felt hopeful, as though she could finally begin to explore it.

"You okay, sweetie? You've gone quiet. I can stop if you want. Just give me the word." It whispered, moving the hoof to gently caress Twilight's cheek. "We can always do this another time."

"N-no!" She protested, then shook her head, blushing just a bit more. "No. I don't think I should waste this opportunity. It just took me by surprise, is all." She bolstered her resolve. "I'm okay with trying this, if you're offering?"

Another nod. "Absolutely, Twilight." With a flash and a pop, the construct was suddenly donning long blue dress. It was long-sleeved and buttoned up the front, with the ruffled skirt only just reaching the floor. Another pop, and a familiar bright red duffel bag appeared beside it, chock full of supplies.

Trying to ignore the bag, emphasis on trying, the lavender alicorn cleared her throat. "G-good! Now, before we, uh, begin? Yeah. Um, what do I call you? I don't think I ever asked if you had a name. Should I give you one?" She stammered, and focused her attention to a suddenly interesting speck of dust clinging to her fetlock.

"Oh, I think I'd like to be called Mary. It's a nice name." She stepped forward, holding Twilight's hoof. "But, hun, you can just call me Nanny~"