"WHY IS IT STILL CRYING?!"

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW, LUNA?!"

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT YOU DON'T KNOW?!"

I had been crying for 10 minutes straight. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't THAT much time, but anyone who's ever heard a baby cry for that amount of time will tell you that it is rather grating, to put it lightly. Princesses Celestia and Luna had been trying their best to try and calm me down through any means they could think of with such noise echoing off the walls of the castle. They had tried making funny faces to get me to laugh, rock me to sleep in their forearms, even checked if I'd...soiled myself, for lack of a better description, but none of those were the problem.

One might think that Princesses like them would know how to raise a child, but even with the short amount of time they had spent with me, they could tell that taking care of a baby was much different than ruling a nation. Their subjects at least had the ability to deliver cognizant speech, so they could communicate what they needed the Princesses for. But with nopony to take care of this strange being, they had to learn first-hoof how to take proper care of one that was unable to talk.

Celestia groaned from the frustration. "I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW HARD THIS IS," she yelled to make sure that Luna could hear her over my cries. With a sudden gasp, she turned to her sister. "MAYBE HE'S HUNGRY! GO GET A BOTTLE OF MILK!"

With a succinct nod, Princess Luna flew to the kitchen, leaving Celestia with the crying infant. Through all the wails, the Princess of the Sun tried to think about what species I was. You can't be a monkey, she thought. You don't have anywhere near enough fur. It then occurred to her that....she had indeed seen something like me before. She couldn't focus enough through all the noise, but she could swear that I looked familiar on some level....

Before she could think any further on the subject, Luna burst back into the room, a bottle of milk held in her hoof. Celestia grabbed the bottle as quick as she could and had me start drinking. Almost immediately, my wailing had finally come to a stop, and my eyes slowly drooped closed.

"Phew! Glad that's over. Any longer, and I probably would have had to resort to earplugs," Luna said exasperatedly. She looked over to her sister coddling the now-silent toddler, hoping for a response. But the Sun Princess was busy looking at the baby, lost in thought....

"Something on your mind, sister?" Luna asked, slight concern showing in her tone of voice. Ever since her time as Nightmare Moon, it had been difficult for Luna to integrate herself into today's society, including her ability to properly show emotion. Therefore, it was very hard for others to hear anything other than a formal way of speech from her. But Celestia was able to notice the concern, and she smiled a little at her sister.

"Oh, nothing, dear Luna," Celestia said wistfully. "It's just....while you were gone, I was thinking about what species he could be...."

"Yes, sister, we know it's unidentifiable."

"No, it's not that. I think....I think I CAN identify it. I can swear I've seen something like him before, sometime in the distant past. I'm just not sure where...."

Celestia tried to imagine where she had seen or heard of this type of creature before. She hadn't read about them in any of her books. Then again, those tomes only covered everything in Equestria and the lands beyond. Maybe there was some other world that he came from....

Sticking true to their plan, Celestia and Luna had to keep an eye on me for two weeks, waiting for my parent or guardian to claim me back. It would not happen, of course, but that didn't stop the alicorn sisters from getting a first-hoof crash course in raising an infant.

The sisters would alternate every day over who would look after me, so that one day I would be with Celestia, the next day with Luna, et cetera. Not only did this give them an equal amount of time with me through the following two weeks, but it would give me two different parenting styles to become acquainted with.

Princess Celestia, as described by her subjects, is a very motherly authority figure. She shows legitimate care and concern for the denizens of Equestria, while also trying to guide them all in the right direction. That being said, she isn't above being stern and just with her punishments, giving each pony the proper consequences for their actions. This infinitely kind yet fairly just nature seemed to carry over to her parenting skills.

On the sixth day of my stay with them, I had been placed in a crib that Celestia had acquired shortly after my arrival. She and Luna had to leave for a while due to royal duties, so I was all alone in my crib. By the time they got back, however, they found that I had managed to climb out of my crib and grab a jar of cookies that had been sitting on a nearby table.

"Sister, the baby is out of his crib! And he's eating our cookies!" Luna cried. "What should we do about it?"

Princess Celestia stayed calm during all this.

"Why, it's simple. We just make the crib bars higher and give him a little time out," Celestia said simply.

Luna looked at her sister with her eyes narrowed.

"R-Really? That's it? No slap on the wrist?" Luna asked, confused.

"Luna, he's a baby. At his age, a slap on the wrist would be too harsh."

Luna sighed. "I suppose."

"You still have a lot to learn about the ways of the world, Luna," Celestia informed her as she lifted me up with her magic and put me back in my crib. "What you suggested would be more for a filly or colt that did something bad, not a little baby."

Luna sighed again, even deeper this time. "You are right. As usual."

After making the bars higher with a spell of hers, Celestia looked back at Luna and smiled a little. "Oh, come on, Luna. Keep trying. You'll get it right eventually," she said jokingly.

For a second, Luna looked back at her with anger, but soon after, her face contorted into a giggle. "Yeah, I suppose I will. And when that happens, you'll finally be proven wrong on something."

Both sisters laughed at their little jokes, and even the baby laughed along, despite me not really knowing what was going on at the time.

That night was another crying session. It was past midnight, and the princesses were particularly exhausted, giving them all the more reason to get me to sleep. This time, however, none of their usual methods weren't working. I wasn't hungry, thirsty, soiled, or anything like that. This time, it was because of a nightmare I had, and one that I would go on to have many times later in life. At the time, all I could remember from it was fire, explosions, and some distinct faces whose owners I had no idea of. Needless to say, it was terrifying for a one-year-old.

When the alicorns found that their usual methods weren't working, Celestia decided to try to calm me down with a new method: a lullaby that would stick with me for the rest of my days.

"Hush now, quiet now
It's time to lay your sleepy head
Hush now, quiet now
It's time to go to bed

Drifting off to sleep
Exciting day behind you
Drifting off to sleep
Let the joy of dream land find you

Hush now, quiet now
Lay your sleepy head
Hush now, quiet now
It's time to go to bed"

As she sang this, I slowly calmed down until I finally fell asleep, sucking my thumb.

Luna was surprised at how easy it was.

"How did you know to do that?" she asked in amazement.

"Well, that's the song my mother sang to me as a foal. I thought that would be the best thing to do in this situation," Celestia replied with a shrug, placing me back in bed.

"In any way, it seems to have worked. You might be better at this than I thought," Luna complimented, impressed.

Celestia smiled.

In the interest of fairness, it's best to give you an idea of how Luna's parenting skills were during her assigned days. Whereas Celestia was the most motherly towards me, the best way to describe Luna's demeanor was "distant". She seemed to put her royal duties first and foremost, while I was more of a secondary priority. What Celestia had said about Luna needing to learn more about the ways of the world was absolutely true. Even when she focused on me, her actions were more passive than anything else. If I cried, the most she seemed to do was to pat my head gently and mutter something along the lines of "There, there."

From this, it might seem to you that she didn't care about me in the slightest. This was simply not the case. Not knowing how a lot of the world works comes with it the lack of knowledge about how to calm somepony. She was simply ignorant as to how to do it, though her attitude when she focused on me was as kind as she could muster.

However, when she didn't have any work to do at the moment, she enjoyed her time with me much more, though again, not in the way that Celestia did. Luna clearly had a love for pranks, and she loved to see me laugh at them along with her. On day five, there were a whole line of guards coming down the hallway. Luna, chuckling madly, threw a banana peel right in their path, and a few seconds later, a whole crowd of guards had fallen over into a pile. Luna and myself laughed loudly at the hilarious pileup. On day nine, Celestia had been taking a nap, and Luna had taken this opportunity to put whipped cream on her hoof and tickle her nose so she would wipe her face with it. The mere image of such a dignified figure having whipped cream all over their face was enough to get us laughing, as well as a five-minute time out for me and a little scolding for Luna. On day thirteen, one day before the end of my time with the alicorns, Luna had put a bucket of water on top of the door, waiting for somepony to come in and the bucket to fall on them. One of the guards came by and got the joke played on him. While we were both told off by Celestia, Luna and I shared a look that, at the time I didn't understand, but now I've come to realize was a sort of kinship between us.

On day fourteen, the final day with the alicorn sisters, it was pretty clear at this point that nopony was coming to claim me as one of their own. While Celestia rocked my crib with me laying in it, Luna was pacing back and forth, wondering what the heck was going on.

"Do you think his parents died?" Luna suggested.

"I don't know," Celestia replied.

"Do you think they abandoned him?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think there was a reason?"

"I don't know!"

Luna recoiled a little at the sudden short outburst that her sister just had, surprised that she had showed herself to be frustrated. Celestia took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Luna. It's just....I don't know what's going on. It irritates me as much as it does you."

"Well, we can't take care of him forever. We have a nation to run," Luna said sagely.

Celestia sighed. Her sister was right. It was hard enough to have done this for two weeks while trying to juggle their duties. Imagine what it would be like for as long as the child would live on! Celestia thought of a subject of hers that would be a fitting parental figure to look after this baby, but she didn't know if any of them would be capable or willing enough to do so. She thought of Mr and Mrs Cake, but they had twin foals to look after, which was already a hoofful for them. She thought of Granny Smith, but she had three grandchildren to care for, as well as having to run Sweet Apple Acres. Having a baby would only add to the stress.

In thinking of possible candidates, Celestia finally thought of the perfect fit. The one who would be the most willing to take on the job. The one who would have the best experience in this sort of thing. The one who I would eventually go on to call Mother.

She took out a letter and began writing.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle..."

Author's Note

Finally! After a while of not updating, I finally got another chapter done! Tell me what you think of this, as well as the story so far! I'm perfectly open to constructive criticism. ^^